




, 



■';-■ ■■ "■■:■■;■:■-:■:■■■■■■■■ 









Class DSZSZ 
.7 

Book , ftz. 



Copyright N?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Of the Edition Immortal of 

Uhe Famous Characters of History 

1,000 Sets ha-Oe been printed, 

of Which this is Set 



mstove 






THE FAMILY OF DARIUS RECEIVING 
ALEXANDER 



Famous Cbaracters ot IbistorE 

DARIUS 

The Great 

BY 
JACOB ABBOTT 

<\@\> 

Volume IV. 

ILLUSTRATED 



1906 
THE ST. HUBERT GUILD 

NEW YORK 



Workshops : Akron, Ohio 



LI8HARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conies Received 

AUG 8 '906 

. CoD>n§ni Entry 
Cl/ASS Qj Xkc. No, 

yV ^/ / X 

I COPY B. 



COPYRIGHT, 1906, 
BY 

The St. Hubert Guii,d 



PREFACE 



Darius was the organizer of the great empire 
loosely gathered together by the conquests of Cyrus 
and Cambyses. Diligently he labored, building cities, 
constructing roads, reforming taxation, improving the 
coinage, even establishing a postal system. To in- 
dustry and commerce he was so attentive that his 
shortsighted contemporaries dubbed him "the Huck- 
ster." A singularly modern man was he, twenty-four 
hundred years ago — a pathetic figure, too, for, little 
as he realized it, he belonged to an age outworn, and 
beside him, small and despised as yet, was growing 
up a people belonging to a newer order of things, 
and destined to smash to fragments the empire he so 
toilsomely up-built. 



(ix) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter Page 

I. CAMBYSES 15 

II. THE END OF CAMBYSES )6 

III. SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 55 

IV. THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS 74 

V. THE PROVINCES 90 

VI. THE RECONNOITERING OF GREECE I 10 

VII. THE REVOLT OF BABYLON. . . 1 29 

VIII. THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA 1 48 

IX. THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA 1 67 

X. THE STORY OF HISTITEUS 1 86 

XI. THE INVASION OF GREECE AND THE BATTLE OF 

MARATHON 205 

XII. THE DEATH OF DARIUS 2JJO 



(xi) 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Darius 

Page 



THE FAMILY OF DARIUS RECEIVING ALEXANDER Frontispiece 

DARIUS INVOKING THE SUN . . . 1 83 

DEATH OF DARIUS 2^0 



(xiii) 



DARIUS THE GREAT 



CHAPTER I. 

Cambyses. 

Cyrus the Great.— His extended conquests.— Cambyses and Smerdis.— Hys- 
taspes and Darius. — Dream of Cyrus. — His anxiety and fears.— Accession 
of Cambyses.— War with Egypt.— Origin of the war with Egypt— 
Ophthalmia.— The Egyptian physician.— His plan of revenge.— De- 
mand of Cyrus.— Stratagem of the King of Egypt.— Resentment of Cas- 
sandane. — Threats of Cambyses. — Future conquests.— Temperament 
and character of Cambyses. — Impetuosity of Cambyses. — Preparations 
for the Egyptian war.— Desertion of Phanes. — His narrow escape. — In- 
formation given by Phanes.— Treaty with the Arabian king.— Plan for 
providing water. — Account of Herodotus. — A great battle. — Defeat of 
the Egyptians. — Inhuman conduct of Cambyses. — His treatment of 
Psammenitus. — The train of captive maidens. — The young men. — Scenes 
of distress and suffering. — Composure of Psammenitus. — Feelings of the 
father. — His explanation of them. — Cambyses relents. — His treatment 
of the body of Amasis. — Cambyses's desecrations. — The sacred bull 
Apis. — Cambyses stabs the sacred bull. — His mad expeditions. — The 
sand storm. — Cambyses a wine-bibber. — Brutal act of Cambyses. — He is 
deemed insane. 

About five or six hundred years before Christ, 
almost the whole of the interior of Asia was 
united in one vast empire. The founder of 
this empire was Cyrus the Great. He was originally 
a Persian; and the whole empire is often called the 

(15) 



16 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 530 

Persian monarchy, taking its name from its founder's 
native land. 

Cyrus was not contented with having annexed to 
his dominion all. the civilized states of Asia. In the 
latter part of his life, he conceived the idea that there 
might possibly be some additional glory and power to 
be acquired in subduing certain half-savage regions 
in the north, beyond the Araxes. He accordingly 
raised an army, and set off on an expedition for this 
purpose, against a country which was governed by a 
barbarian queen named Tomyris. He met with a 
variety of adventures on this expedition, all of which 
are fully detailed in our history of Cyrus. There is, 
however, only one occurrence that it is necessary to 
allude to particularly here. That one relates to a re- 
markable dream which he had one night, just after he 
had crossed the river. 

To explain properly the nature of this dream, it is 
necessary first to state that Cyrus had two sons. 
Their names were Cambyses and Smerdis. He had 
left them in Persia when he set out on his expedition 
across the Araxes. There was also a young man, 
then about twenty years of age, in one of his capitals, 
named Darius. He was the son of one of the nobles 
of Cyrus's court. His father's name was Hystaspes. 
Hystaspes, besides being a noble of the court, was 
also, as almost all nobles were in those days, an officer 
of the army, He accompanied Cyrus in his march 



B.C. 530] CAMBYSES 17 

into the territories of the barbarian queen, and was 
with him there, in camp, at the time when this nar- 
rative commences. 

Cyrus, it seems, felt some misgivings in respect 
to i\e result of his enterprise; and, in order to insure 
the tranquillity of his empire during his absence, and 
the secure transmission of his power to his rightful 
successor in case he should never return, he estab- 
lished his son Cambyses as regent of his realms be- 
fore he crossed the Araxes, and delivered the govern- 
ment of the empire, with great formality, into his 
hands. This took place upon the frontier, just before 
the army passed the river. The mind of a father, 
under such circumstances, would naturally be oc- 
cupied, in some degree, with thoughts relating to 
the arrangements which his son would make, and to 
the difficulties he would be likely to encounter in 
managing the momentous concerns which had been 
committed to his charge. The mind of Cyrus was 
undoubtedly so occupied, and this, probably, was the 
origin of the remarkable dream. 

His dream was, that Darius appeared to him in a 
vision, with vast wings growing from his shoulders. 
Darius stood, in the vision, on the confines of Europe 
and Asia, and his wings, expanded either way, over- 
shadowed the whole known world. When Cyrus 
awoke and reflected on this ominous dream, it seemed 
to him to portend some great danger to the future 

M. ofH.— 17— 2 



18 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 530 

security of his empire. It appeared to denote that 
Darius was one day to bear sway over all the world. 
Perhaps he might be even then forming ambitious 
and treasonable designs. Cyrus immediately sent for 
Hystaspes, the father of Darius; when he came to his 
tent, he commanded him to go back to Persia, and 
keep a strict watch over the conduct of his son until 
he himself should return. Hystaspes received this 
commission, and departed to execute it; and Cyrus, 
somewhat relieved, perhaps, of his anxiety by this 
measure of precaution, went on with his army toward 
his place of destination. 

Cyrus never returned. He was killed in battle; 
and it would seem that, though the import of his 
dream was ultimately fulfilled, Darius was not, at 
that time, meditating any schemes of obtaining pos- 
session of the throne, for he made no attempt to 
interfere with the regular transmission of the imperial 
power from Cyrus to Cambyses his son. At any 
rate, it was so transmitted. The tidings of Cyrus's 
death came to the capital, and Cambyses, his son, 
reigned in his stead. 

The great event of the reign of Cambyses was a 
war with Egypt, which originated in the following 
very singular manner: 

It has been found, in all ages of the world, that 
there is some peculiar quality of the soil, or climate, 
or atmosphere of Egypt which tends to produce an 



B.C. 530] CAMBYSES 19 

inflammation of the eyes. The inhabitants themselves 
have at all times been very subject to this disease, 
and foreign armies marching into the country are al- 
ways very seriously affected by it. Thousands of sol- 
diers in such armies are sometimes disabled from this 
cause, and many are made incurably blind. Now a 
country which produces a disease in its worst form 
and degree, will produce also, generally, the best phy- 
sicians for that disease. At any rate, this was sup- 
posed to be the case in ancient times; and accordingly, 
when any powerful potentate in those days was af- 
flicted himself with ophthalmia, or had such a case 
in his family, Egypt was the country to send to for 
a physician. 

Now it happened that Cyrus himself, at one time 
in the course of his life, was attacked with this dis- 
ease, and he dispatched an embassador to Amasis, 
who was then King of Egypt, asking him to send him 
a physician. Amasis, who, like all other absolute sov- 
ereigns of those days, regarded his subjects as slaves 
that were in all respects entirely at his disposal, se- 
lected a physician of distinction from among the at- 
tendants about his court, and ordered him to repair to 
Persia. The physician was extremely reluctant to go. 
He had a wife and family, from whom he was very 
unwilling to be separated; but the orders were im- 
perative, and he must obey. He set out on the jour- 
ney, therefore, but he secretly resolved to devise some 



20 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 530 

mode of revenging himself on the king for the cruelty 
of sending him. 

He was well received by Cyrus, and, either by his 
skill as a physician, or from other causes, he acquired 
great influence at the Persian court. At last he con- 
trived a mode of revenging himself on the Egyptian 
king for having exiled him from his native land. The 
king had a daughter, who was a lady of great beauty. 
Her father was very strongly attached to her. The 
physician recommended to Cyrus to send to Amasis 
and demand this daughter in marriage. As, however, 
Cyrus was already married, the Egyptian princess 
would, if she came, be his concubine rather than his 
wife, or, if considered a wife, it could only be a sec- 
ondary and subordinate place that she could occupy. 
The physician knew that, under these circumstances, 
the King of Egypt would be extremely unwilling to 
send her to Cyrus, while he would yet scarcely dare 
to refuse; and the hope of plunging him into extreme 
embarrassment and distress, by means of such a de- 
mand from so powerful a sovereign, was the motive 
which led the physician to recommend the meas- 
ure. 

Cyrus was pleased with the proposal, and sent, 
accordingly, to make the demand. The king, as the 
physician had anticipated, could not endure to part 
with his daughter in such a way, nor did he, on the 
other hand, dare to incur the displeasure of so pow- 



B.C. 530] CAMBYSES 21 

erful a monarch by a direct and open refusal. He 
finally resolved upon escaping from the difficulty 
by a stratagem. 

There was a young and beautiful captive princess 
in his court named Nitetis. Her father, whose name 
was Apries, had been formerly the King of Egypt, 
but he had been dethroned and killed by Amasis. 
Since the downfall of her family, Nitetis had been a 
captive; but, as she was very beautiful and very ac- 
complished, Amasis conceived the design of sending 
her to Cyrus, under the pretense that she was the 
daughter whom Cyrus had demanded. He accord- 
ingly brought her forth, provided her with the most 
costly and splendid dresses, loaded her with presents, 
ordered a large retinue to attend her, and sent her 
forth to Persia. 

Cyrus was at first very much pleased with his 
new bride. Nitetis became, in fact, his principal 
favorite; though, of course, his other wife whose 
name was Cassandane, and her children, Cambyses 
and Smerdis, were jealous of her, and hated her. 
One day, a Persian lady was visiting at the court, 
and as she was standing near Cassandane, and saw 
her two sons, who were then tall and handsome 
young men, she expressed her admiration of them, 
and said to Cassandane, "How proud and happy you 
must be!" "No," said Cassandane; "on the con- 
trary, I am very miserable; for, though I am the 



22 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 530 

mother of these children, the king neglects and de- 
spises me. All his kindness is bestowed on this 
Egyptian woman." Cambyses, who heard this con- 
versation, sympathized deeply with Cassandane in her 
resentment. "Mother," said he, "be patient, and I 
will avenge you. As soon as I am king, I will 
go to Egypt and turn the whole country upside 
down." 

In fact, the tendency which there was in the mind 
of Cambyses to look upon Egypt as the first field of 
war and conquest for him, so soon as he should suc- 
ceed to the throne, was encouraged by the influence 
of his father; for Cyrus, although he was much cap- 
tivated by the charms of the lady whom the King of 
Egypt had sent him, was greatly incensed against the 
king for having practiced upon him such a deception. 
Besides, all the important countries in Asia were al- 
ready included within the Persian dominions. It was 
plain that if any future progress were to be made in 
extending the empire, the regions of Europe and Af- 
rica must be the theater of it. Egypt seemed the 
most accessible and vulnerable point beyond the con- 
fines of Asia; and thus, though Cyrus himself, being 
advanced somewhat in years, and interested, more- 
over, in other projects, was not prepared to under- 
take an enterprise into Africa himself, he was very 
willing that such plans should be cherished by his 
son. 



B.C. 530] CAMBYSES 23 

Cambyses was an ardent, impetuous, and self- 
willed boy, such as the sons of rich and powerful 
men are very apt to become. They imbibed, by a 
sort of sympathy, the ambitious and aspiring spirit of 
their fathers; and as all their childish caprices and 
passions are generally indulged, they never learn to 
submit to control. They become vain, self-conceited, 
reckless, and cruel. The conqueror who founds an 
empire, although even his character generally deteri- 
orates very seriously toward the close of his career, 
still usually knows something of moderation and gen- 
erosity. His son, however, who inherits his father's 
power, seldom inherits the virtues by which the 
power was acquired. These truths, which we see 
continually exemplified all around us, on a small scale, 
in the families of the wealthy and the powerful, were 
illustrated most conspicuously, in the view of all man- 
kind, in the case of Cyrus and Cambyses. The father 
was prudent, cautious, wise, and often generous and 
forbearing. The son grew up headstrong, impetuous, 
uncontrolled, and uncontrollable. He had the most 
lofty ideas of his own greatness and power, and he 
felt a supreme contempt for the rights, and indiffer- 
ence to the happiness of all the world besides. His 
history gives us an illustration of the worst which 
the principle of hereditary sovereignty can do, as 
the best is exemplified in the case of Alfred of Eng- 
land. 



24 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 527 

Cambyses, immediately after his father's death, be- 
gan to make arrangements for the Egyptian invasion. 
The first thing to be determined was the mode of 
transporting his armies thither. Egypt is a long and 
narrow valley, with the rocks and deserts of Arabia 
on one side, and those of Sahara on the other. There 
is no convenient mode of access to it except by sea, 
and Cambyses had no naval force sufficient for a 
maritime expedition. 

While he was revolving the subject in his mind, 
there arrived in his capital of Susa, where he was 
then residing, a deserter from the army of Amasis in 
Egypt. The name of this deserter was Phanes. He 
was a Greek, having been the commander of a body 
of Greek troops who were employed by Amasis as 
auxiliaries in his army. He had had a quarrel with 
Amasis, and had fled to Persia, intending to join 
Cambyses in the expedition which he was contem- 
plating, in order to revenge himself on the Egyptian 
king. Phanes said, in telling his story, that he had 
had a very narrow escape from Egypt; for, as soon 
as Amasis had heard that he had fled, he dispatched 
one of his swiftest vessels, a galley of three banks of 
oars, in hot pursuit of the fugitive. The galley over- 
took the vessel in which Phanes had taken passage 
just as it was landing in Asia Minor. The Egyptian 
officers seized it and made Phanes prisoner. They 
immediately began to make their preparations for the 



B.C. 527] CAMBYSES 25 

return voyage, putting Phanes, in the mean time, un- 
der the charge of guards, who were instructed to 
keep him very safely. Phanes, however, cultivated a 
good understanding with his guards, and presently 
invited them to drink wine with him. In the end, 
he got them intoxicated, and while they were in that 
state he made his escape from them, and then, travel- 
ing with great secrecy and caution until he was be- 
yond their reach, he succeeded in making his way to 
Cambyses in Susa. 

Phanes gave Cambyses a great deal of information 
in respect to the geography of Egypt, the proper 
points of attack, the character and resources of the 
king, and communicated, likewise, a great many 
other particulars which it was very important that 
Cambyses should know. He recommended that Cam- 
byses should proceed to Egypt by land, through 
Arabia; and that, in order to secure a safe passage, 
he should send first to the King of the Arabs, by a 
formal embassy, asking permission to cross his ter- 
ritories with an army, and engaging the Arabians to 
aid him, if possible, in the transit. Cambyses did this. 
The Arabs were very willing to join in any projected 
hostilities against the Egyptians; they offered Cam- 
byses a free passage, and agreed to aid his army on 
their march. To the faithful fulfillment of these stip- 
ulations the Arab chief bound himself by a treaty, ex- 
ecuted with the most solemn forms and ceremonies. 



26 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 526 

The great difficulty to be encountered in travers- 
ing the deserts which Cambyses would have to cross 
on his way to Egypt was the want of water. To 
provide for this necessity, the king of the Arabs sent a 
vast number of camels into the desert, laden with great 
sacks or bags full of water. These camels were sent 
forward just before the army of Cambyses came on, 
and they deposited their supplies along the route at 
the points where they would be most needed. He- 
rodotus, the Greek traveler, who made a journey into 
Egypt not a great many years after these transactions, 
and who wrote subsequently a full description of what 
he saw and heard there, gives an account of another 
method by which the Arab king was said to have 
conveyed water into the desert, and that was by a 
canal or pipe, made of the skins of oxen, which he 
laid along the ground, from a certain river of his do- 
minions, to a distance of twelve days' journey over 
the sands! This story Herodotus says he did not be- 
lieve, though elsewhere in the course of his history he 
gravely relates, as true history, a thousand tales infi- 
nitely more improbable than the idea of a leathern 
pipe or hose like this to serve for a conduit of 
water. 

By some means or other, at all events, the Arab 
chief provided supplies of water in the desert for 
Cambyses's army, and the troops made the passage 
safely. They arrived, at length, on the frontiers of 



B.C. 526] CAMBYSES 27 

Egypt. Here they found that Amasis, the king, was 
dead, and Psammenitus, his son, had succeeded him. 
Psammenitus came forward to meet the invaders. A 
great battle was fought. The Egyptians were routed. 
Psammenitus fled up the Nile to the city of Memphis, 
taking with him such broken remnants of his army 
as he could get together after the battle, and feeling 
extremely incensed and exasperated against the in- 
vader. In fact, Cambyses had now no excuse or pre- 
text whatever for waging such a war against Egypt. 
The monarch who had deceived his father was dead, 
and there had never been any cause of complaint 
against his son or against the Egyptian people. Psam- 
menitus, therefore, regarded the invasion of Egypt by 
Cambyses as a wanton and wholly unjustifiable ag- 
gression, and he determined, in his own mind, that 
such invaders deserved no mercy, and that he would 
show them none. Soon after this, a galley on the 
river, belonging to Cambyses, containing a crew of 
two hundred men, fell into his hands. The Egyp- 
tians, in their rage, tore these Persians all to pieces. 
This exasperated Cambyses in his turn, and the war 
went on, attended by the most atrocious cruelties on 
both sides. 

In fact, Cambyses, in this Egyptian campaign, pur- 
sued such a career of inhuman and reckless folly, that 
people at last considered him insane. He began with 
some small semblance of moderation, but he pro- 



28 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. $iG 

ceeded, in the end, to the perpetration of the most terri- 
ble excesses of violence and wrong. 

As to his moderation, his treatment of Psammenitus 
personally is almost the only instance that we can re- 
cord. In the course of the war, Psammenitus and all 
his family fell into Cambyses's hands as captives. A 
few days afterward, Cambyses conducted the unhappy 
king without the gates of the city to exhibit a spec- 
tacle to him. The spectacle was that of his belove4 
daughter clothed in the garments of a slave, and at- 
tended by a company of other maidens, the daughters 
of the nobles and other persons of distinction belong- 
ing to his court, all going down to the river, with 
heavy jugs, to draw water. The fathers of all these 
hapless maidens had been brought out .with Psamme- 
nitus to witness the degradation and misery of their 
children. The maidens cried and sobbed aloud as 
they went along, overwhelmed with shame and terror. 
Their fathers manifested the utmost agitation and dis- 
tress. Cambyses stood smiling by, highly enjoying 
the spectacle. Psammenitus alone appeared unmoved. 
He gazed on the scene silent, motionless, and with a 
countenance which indicated no active suffering; he 
seemed to be in a state of stupefaction and despair. 
Cambyses was disappointed, and his pleasure was 
marred at finding that his victim did not feel more 
acutely the sting of the torment with which he was 
endeavoring to goad him. 



B.C. 524] CAMBYSES 29 

When this train had gone by, another came. It 
was a company of young men, with halters about 
their necks, going to execution. Cambyses had ordered 
that for every one of the crew of his galley that the 
Egyptians had killed, ten Egyptians should be exe- 
cuted. This proportion would require two thousand 
victims, as there had been two hundred in the crew. 
These victims were to be selected from among the 
sons of the leading families; and their parents, after 
having seen their delicate and gentle daughters go to 
their servile toil, were now next to behold their sons 
march in a long and terrible array to execution. The 
son of Psammenitus was at the head of the column. 
The Egyptian parents who stood around Psammenitus 
wept and lamented aloud, as one after another saw 
his own child in the train. Psammenitus himself, 
however, remained as silent and motionless, and with 
a countenance as vacant as before. Cambyses was 
again disappointed. The pleasure which the exhibi- 
tion afforded him was incomplete without visible mani- 
festations of suffering in the victim for whose torture 
it was principally designed. 

After this train of captives had passed, there came 
a mixed collection of wretched and miserable men, 
such as the siege and sacking of a city always pro- 
duces in countless numbers. Among these was a 
venerable man whom Psammenitus recognized as one 
of his friends. He had been a man of wealth and 



30 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 524 

high station; he had often been at the court of the 
king, and had been entertained at his table. He was 
now, however, reduced to the last extremity of dis- 
tress, and was begging of the people something to 
keep him from starving. The sight of this man in 
such a condition seemed to awaken the king from his 
blank and death-like despair. He called his old friend 
by name in a tone of astonishment and pity, and 
burst into tears. 

Cambyses, observing this, sent a messenger to 
Psammenitus to inquire what it meant. "He wishes 
to know," said the messenger, "how it happens that 
you could see your own daughter set at work as a 
slave, and your son led away to execution unmoved, 
and yet feel so much commiseration for the misfor- 
tunes of a stranger." We might suppose that any 
one possessing the ordinary susceptibilities of the hu- 
man soul would have understood without an expla- 
nation the meaning of this, though it is not surprising 
that such a heartless monster as Cambyses did not 
comprehend it. Psammenitus sent him word that he 
could not help weeping for his friend, but that his 
distress and anguish on account of his children were 
too great for tears. 

The Persians who were around Cambyses began 
now to feel a strong sentiment of compassion for the 
unhappy king, and to intercede with Cambyses in his 
favor. They begged him, too, to spare Psammenitus's 



B.C. 524] CAMBYSES 31 

son. It will interest those of our readers who have 
perused our history of Cyrus to know that Croesus, 
the captive king of Lydia, whom they will recollect 
to have been committed to Cambyses's charge by his 
father, just before the close of his life, when he was 
setting forth on his last fatal expedition, and who ac- 
companied Cambyses on this invasion of Egypt, was 
present on this occasion, and was one of the most 
earnest interceders in Psammenitus's favor. Cambyses 
allowed himself to be persuaded. They sent off a 
messenger to order the execution of the king's son to 
be stayed; but he arrived too late. The unhappy 
prince had already fallen. Cambyses was so far ap- 
peased by the influence of these facts, that he 
abstained from doing Psammenitus or his family any 
further injury. 

He, however, advanced up the Nile, ravaging and 
plundering the country as he went on, and at length, 
in the course of his conquests, he gained possession 
of the tomb in which the embalmed body of Amasis 
was deposited. He ordered this body to be taken out 
of its sarcophagus, and treated with every mark of 
ignominy. His soldiers, by his orders, beat it with 
rods, as if it could still feel, and goaded it, and cut 
it with swords. They pulled the hair out of the head 
by the roots, and loaded the lifeless form with every 
conceivable mark of insult and ignominy. Finally, 
Cambyses ordered the mutilated remains that were 



3d DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 524 

left to be burned, which was a procedure as abhor- 
rent to the ideas and feelings of the Egyptians as 
could possibly be devised. 

Cambyses took every opportunity to insult the re- 
ligious, or as, perhaps, we ought to call them, the 
superstitious feelings of the Egyptians. He broke into 
their temples, desecrated their altars, and subjected 
every thing which they held most sacred to insult 
and ignominy. Among their objects of religious ven- 
eration was the sacred bull called Apis. This animal 
was selected from time to time, from the country at 
large, by the priests, by means of certain marks which 
they pretended to discover upon its body, and which 
indicated a divine and sacred character. The sacred 
bull thus found was kept in a magnificent temple, 
and attended and fed in a most sumptuous manner. 
In serving him, the attendants used vessels of gold. 

Cambyses arrived at the city where Apis was kept 
at a time when the priests were celebrating some 
sacred occasion with festivities and rejoicings. He 
was himself then returning from an unsuccessful ex- 
pedition which he had made, and, as he entered the 
town, stung with vexation and anger at his defeat, 
the gladness and joy which the Egyptians manifested 
in their ceremonies served only to irritate him, and 
to make him more angry than ever. He killed the 
priests who were officiating. He then demanded to 
be taken into the edifice to see the sacred animal, 



B.C. 524] CAMBYSES 33 

and there, after insulting the feelings of the worship- 
ers in every possible way by ridicule and scornful 
words, he stabbed the innocent bull with his dagger. 
The animal died of the wound, and the whole country 
was filled with horror and indignation. The people 
believed that this deed would most assuredly bring 
down upon the impious perpetrator of it the judg- 
ments of Heaven. 

Cambyses organized, while he was in Egypt, sev- 
eral mad expeditions into the surrounding countries. 
In a fit of passion, produced by an unsatisfactory 
answer to an embassage, he set off suddenly, and 
without any proper preparation, to march into Ethiopia. 
The provisions of his army were exhausted before he 
had performed a fifth part of the march. Still, in his 
infatuation, he determined to go on. The soldiers 
subsisted for a time on such vegetables as they could 
find by the way; when these failed, they slaughtered 
and ate their beasts of burden; and finally, in the ex- 
tremity of their famine, they began to kill and devour 
one another; then, at length, Cambyses concluded to 
return. He sent off, too, at one time, a large army 
across the desert toward the Temple of Jupiter Am- 
nion, without any of the necessary precautions for 
such a march. This army never reached their des- 
tination, and they never returned. The people of the 
Oasis said that they were overtaken by a sand storm 
in the desert, and were all overwhelmed. 

M. of H.— 17— 3 



34 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 524 

There was a certain officer in attendance on Cam- 
byses named Prexaspes. He was a sort of confiden- 
tial friend and companion of the king; and his son, 
who was a fair, and graceful, and accomplished youth, 
was the king's cup-bearer, which was an office of 
great consideration and honor. One day Cambyses 
asked Prexaspes what the Persians generally thought 
of him. Prexaspes replied that they thought and 
spoke well of him in all respects but one. The king 
wished to know what the exception was. Prexaspes 
rejoined, that it was the general opinion that he was 
too much addicted to wine. Cambyses was offended 
at this reply; and, under the influence of the feeling, 
so wholly unreasonable and absurd, which so often 
leads men to be angry with the innocent medium 
through which there comes to them any communica- 
tion which they do not like, he determined to pun- 
ish Prexaspes for his freedom. He ordered his son, 
therefore, the cup-bearer, to take his place against the 
wall on the other side of the room. "Now," said he, 
"I will put what the Persians say to the test." As 
he said this, he took up a bow and arrow which 
were at his side, and began to fit the arrow to the 
string. "If," said he, "I do not shoot him exactly 
through the heart, it shall prove that the Persians are 
right. If I do, then they are wrong, as it will show 
that I do not drink so much as to make my hand un- 
steady." So saying, he drew the bow, the arrow flew 



B.C. 524] CAMBYSES 3s 

through the air, and pierced the poor boy's breast. 
He fell, and Cambyses coolly ordered the attendants 
to open the body, and let Prexaspes see whether the 
arrow had not gone through the heart. 

These, and a constant succession of similar acts of 
atrocious and reckless cruelty and folly, led the world 
to say that Cambyses was insane. 




CHAPTER II. 
The End of Cambyses. 

Cambyses's profligate conduct. — He marries his own sisters. — Consultation of 
the Persian judges. — Their opinion. — Sinerdis. — Jealousy of Cambyses. 
— The two magi. — Cambyses suspicious. — He plans an invasion of Ethi- 
opia. — Island of Elephantine. — The Ichthyophagi. — Classes of savage 
nations. — Embassadors sent to Ethiopia. — The presents. — The Ethio- 
pian king detects the imposture. — The Ethiopian king's opinion of 
Cambyses's presents. — Return of the Ichthyophagi. — The Ethiopian 
bow. — Jealousy of Cambyses. — He orders Smerdis to be murdered. — 
Cambyses grows more cruel. — Twelve noblemen buried alive. — Cam- 
byses's cruelty to his sister. — Her death. — The venerable Crcesus. — His 
advice to Cambyses. — Cambyses's rage at Crcesus. — He attempts to kill 
him. — The declaration of the oracle. — Ecbataua, Susa, and Babylon. — 
Cambyses returns northward. — He enters Syria. — A herald proclaims 
Smerdis. — The herald seized. — Probable explanation. — Rage of Cam- 
byses. — Cambyses mortally wounded. — His remorse and despair. — 
Cambyses calls his nobles about him. — His dying declaration. — Death 
of Cambyses. — His dying declaration discredited. 

Among the other acts of profligate wickedness 
which have blackened indelibly and forever 
Cambyses's name, he married two of his own 
sisters, and brought one of them with him to Egypt 
as his wife. The natural instincts of all men, except 
those whose early life has been given up to the most 
shameless and dissolute habits of vice, are sufficient to 
preserve them from such crimes as these. Cambyses 
himself felt, it seems, some misgivings when contem- 
plating the first of these marriages; and he sent to a 
(36) 



B.C. $23] END OF CAMBYSES 37 

certain council of judges, whose province it was to 
interpret the laws, asking them their opinion of the 
rightfulness of such a marriage. Kings ask the 
opinion of their legal advisers in such cases, not be- 
cause they really wish to know whether the act in 
question is right or wrong, but because, having them- 
selves determined upon the performance of it, they 
wish their counselors to give it a sort of legal sanc- 
tion, in order to justify the deed, and diminish the 
popular odium which it might otherwise incur. 

The Persian judges whom Cambyses consulted on 
this occasion understood very well what was expected 
of them. After a grave deliberation, they returned 
answer to the king that, though they could find no 
law allowing a man to marry his sister, they found 
many which authorized a king of Persia to do what- 
ever he thought best. Cambyses accordingly carried 
his plan into execution. He married first the older 
sister, whose name was Atossa. Atossa became sub- 
sequently a personage of great historical distinction. 
The daughter of Cyrus, the wife of Darius, and the 
mother of Xerxes, she was the link that bound to- 
gether the three most magnificent potentates of the 
whole Eastern world. How far these sisters were 
willing participators in the guilt of their incestuous 
marriages we can not now know. The one who 
went with Cambyses into Egypt was of a humane, 
and gentle, and timid disposition, being in these re- 



38 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 523 

spects wholly unlike her brother; and it may be that 
she merely yielded, in the transaction of her marriage, 
to her brother's arbitrary and imperious will. 

Besides this sister, Cambyses had brought his 
brother Smerdis with him into Egypt. Smerdis was 
younger than Cambyses, but he was superior to him 
in strength and personal accomplishments. Cambyses 
was very jealous of this superiority. He did not dare 
to leave his brother in Persia, to manage the govern- 
ment in his stead during his absence, lest he should 
take advantage of the temporary power thus commit- 
ted to his hands, and usurp the throne altogether. 
He decided, therefore, to bring Smerdis with him into 
Egypt, and to leave the government of the state in 
the hands of a regency composed of two magi. 
These magi were public officers of distinction, but, 
having no hereditary claims to the crown, Cambyses 
thought there would be little danger of their attempt- 
ing to usurp it. It happened, however, that the name 
of one of these magi was Smerdis. This coincidence 
between the magian's name and that of the prince led, 
in the end, as will presently be seen, to very impor- 
tant consequences. 

The uneasiness and jealousy which Cambyses felt 
in respect to his brother was not wholly allayed by 
the arrangement which he thus made for keeping him 
in his army, and so under his own personal observa- 
tion and command Smerdis evinced, on various oc- 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 39 

casions, so much strength and skill, that Cambyses 
feared his influence among the officers and soldiers, 
and was rendered continually watchful, suspicious, 
and afraid. A circumstance at last occurred which ex- 
cited his jealousy more than ever, and he determined 
to send Smerdis home again to Persia. The circum- 
stance was this: 

After Cambyses had succeeded in obtaining full 
possession of Egypt, he formed, among his other 
wild and desperate schemes, the design of invading 
the territories of a nation of Ethiopians who lived in 
the interior of Africa, around and beyond the sources 
of the Nile. The Ethiopians were celebrated for their 
savage strength and bravery. Cambyses wished to 
obtain information respecting them and their country 
before setting out on his expedition against them, and 
he determined to send spies into their country to ob- 
tain it. But, as Ethiopia was a territory so remote, 
and as its institutions and customs, and the language, 
the dress, and the manners of its inhabitants were 
totally different from those of all the other nations of 
the earth, and were almost wholly unknown to the 
Persian army, it was impossible to send Persians in 
disguise, with any hope that they could enter and 
explore the country without being discovered. It 
was very doubtful, in fact, whether, if such spies 
were to be sent, they could succeed in reaching Ethi- 
opia at all. 



4 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 523 

Now there was, far up the Nile, near the cataracts, 
at a place where the river widens and forms a sort 
of bay, a large and fertile island called Elephantine, 
which was inhabited by a half-savage tribe called the 
Ichthyophagi. They lived mainly by fishing on the 
river, and, consequently, they had many boats, and 
were accustomed to make long excursions up and 
down the stream. Their name was, in fact, derived 
from their occupation. It was a Greek word, and 
might be translated "Fishermen."* The manners 
and customs of half-civilized or savage nations depend 
entirely, of course, upon the modes in which they 
procure their subsistence. Some depend on hunting 
wild beasts, some on rearing flocks and herds of 
tame animals, some on cultivating the ground, and 
some on fishing in rivers or in the sea. These four 
different modes of procuring food result in as many 
totally diverse modes of life: it is a curious fact, how- 
ever, that while a nation of hunters differs very es- 
sentially from a nation of herdsmen or of fishermen, 
though they may live, perhaps, in the same neighbor- 
hood with them, still, all nations of hunters, however 
widely they may be separated in geographical posi- 
tion, very strongly resemble one another in character, 
in customs, in institutions, and in all the usages of 
life. It is so, moreover, with all the other types of 
national constitution mentioned above. The Greeks 

* Literally, fish-eaters. 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 41 

observed these characteristics of the various savage 
tribes with which they became acquainted, and when- 
ever they met with a tribe that lived by fishing, they 
called them Ichthyophagi. 

Cambyses sent to the Ichthyophagi of the island of 
Elephantine, requiring them to furnish him with a 
number of persons acquainted with the route to 
Ethiopia and with the Ethiopian language, that he 
might send them as an embassy. He also provided 
some presents to be sent as a token of friendship to 
the Ethiopian king. The presents were, however, 
only a pretext, to enable the embassadors, who were, 
in fact, spies, to go to the capital and court of the 
Ethiopian monarch in safety, and bring back to Cam- 
byses all the information which they should be able 
to obtain. 

The presents consisted of such toys and orna- 
ments as they thought would most please the fancy 
of a savage king. There were some purple vestments 
of a very rich and splendid dye, and a golden chain for 
the neck, golden bracelets for the wrists, an alabaster 
box of very precious perfumes, and other similar 
trinkets and toys. There was also a large vessel 
filled with wine. 

The Icthyophagi took these presents, and set out 
on their expedition. After a long and toilsome voy- 
age and journey, they came to the country of the 
Ethiopians, and delivered their presents, together with 



4 2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 523 

the message which Cambyses had intrusted to them. 
The presents, they said, had been sent by Cambyses 
as a token of his desire to become the friend and 
ally of the Ethiopian king. 

The king, instead of being deceived by this hypoc- 
risy, detected the imposture at once. He knew very 
well, he said, what was the motive of Cambyses in 
sending such an embassage to him, and he should 
advise Cambyses to be content with his own domin- 
ions, instead of planning aggressions of violence, and 
schemes and stratagems of deceit against his neigh- 
bors, in order to get possession of theirs. He then 
began to look at the presents which the embassadors 
had brought, which, however, he appeared very soon 
to despise. The purple vest first attracted his atten- 
tion. He asked whether that was the true, natural 
color of the stuff, or a false one. The messengers 
told him that the linen was dyed, and began to ex- 
plain the process to him. The mind of the savage 
potentate, however, instead of being impressed, as 
the messengers supposed he would have been through 
their description, with a high idea of the excellence 
and superiority of Persian art, only despised the false 
show of what he considered an artificial and fictitious 
beauty. "The beauty of Cambyses's dresses," said 
he "is as deceitful, it seems, as the fair show of 
his professions of friendship." As to the golden brace- 
lets and necklaces, the king looked upon them with 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 43 

contempt. He thought that they were intended for 
fetters and chains, and said that, however well they 
might answer among the effeminate Persians, they 
were wholly insufficient to confine such sinews as he 
had to deal with. The wine, however, he liked. He 
drank it with great pleasure, and told the Ichthyophagi 
that it was the only article among all their presents 
that was worth receiving. 

In return for the presents which Cambyses had 
sent him, the King of the Ethiopians, who was a 
man of prodigious size and strength, took down his 
bow and gave it to the Ichthyophagi, telling them to 
carry it to Cambyses as a token of his defiance, and 
to ask him to see if he could find a man in all his 
army who could bend it. "Tell Cambyses," he added, 
"that when his soldiers are able to bend such bows 
as that, it will be time for him to think of invading 
the territories of the Ethiopians; and that, in the mean 
time, he ought to consider himself very fortunate that 
the Ethiopians were not grasping and ambitious 
enough to attempt the invasion of his." 

When the Ichthyophagi returned to Cambyses with 
this message, the strongest men in the Persian camp 
were of course greatly interested in examining and 
trying the bow. Smerdis was the only one that could 
be found who was strong enough to bend it; and he, 
by the superiority to the others which he thus evinced, 
gained great renown. Cambyses was filled with jeal- 



44 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 523 

ousy and anger. He determined to send Smerdis 
back again to Persia. "It will be belter," thought he 
to himself, "to incur whatever danger there may be 
of his exciting revolt at home, than to have him pres- 
ent in my eourt. subjecting me to continual mortifica- 
tion and chagrin by the perpetual parade of his superi- 
ority." 

His mind was, however, not at ease after his 
brother had gone. Jealousy and suspicion in respect 
to Smerdis perplexed his waking thoughts and trou- 
bled his dreams. At length, one night, he thought 
he saw Smerdis seated on a royal throne in Persia. 
his form expanded supernaturally to such a prodigious 
size that he touched the heavens with his head. The 
next day, Cambyses, supposing that the dream por- 
tended danger that Smerdis would be one day in 
possession of the throne, determined to put a final 
and perpetual end to all these troubles and fears, and 
he sent for an officer of his court. Prexaspes — the 
same whose son he shot through the heart with an 
arrow, as described in the last chapter — and com- 
manded him to proceed immediately to Persia, and 
there to find Smerdis, and kill him. The murder of 
Prexaspes's son. though related in the last chapter as 
an illustration of Cambyses's character, did not actu- 
ally take place till after Prexaspes returned from this 
expedition. 

Prexaspes went to Persia, and executed the orders 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 45 

of the king by the assassination of Smerdis. There 
are different accounts of the mode which he adopted 
for accomplishing his purpose. One is, that he con- 
trived some way to drown him in the sea; another, 
that he poisoned him; and a third, that he killed him 
in the forests, when he was out on a hunting excur- 
sion. At all events, the deed was done, and Prex- 
aspes went back to Cambyses, and reported to him 
that he had nothing further to fear from his brother's 
ambition. 

In the mean time, Cambyses went on from bad to 
worse in his government, growing every day more des- 
potic and tyrannical, and abandoning himself to fits 
of cruelty and passion which became more and more 
excessive and insane. At one time, on some slight 
provocation, he ordered twelve distinguished noble- 
men of his court to be buried alive. It is astonish- 
ing that there can be institutions and arrangements 
in the social state which will give one man such an 
ascendency over others that such commands can be 
obeyed. On another occasion, Cambyses's sister and 
wife, who had mourned the death of her brother 
Smerdis, ventured a reproach to Cambyses for having 
destroyed him. She was sitting at table, with some 
plant or flower in her hand, which she slowly picked 
to pieces, putting the fragments on the table. She 
asked Cambyses whether he thought the flower looked 
fairest and best in fragments, or in its original and 



46 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. s*3 

natural integrity. "It looked best, certainly,*' Cam- 
byses said, "when it was whole." "And yet," said 
she, "you have begun to take to pieces and destroy 
our family, as 1 have destroyed this flower." Cam- 
byses sprang upon his unhappy sister, on hearing 
this reproof, with the ferocity of a tiger. He threw 
her down and leaped upon her. The attendants suc- 
ceeded in rescuing her and bearing her away; but 
she had received a fatal injury. She fell immediately 
into a premature and unnatural sickness, and died. 

These tits of sudden and terrible passion to which 
Cambyses was subject, were often followed, when 
they had passed by. as is usual in such cases, with 
remorse and misery; and sometimes the officers of 
Cambyses, anticipating a change in their master's 
feelings, did not execute his cruel orders, but con- 
coaled the object of his blind and insensate vengeance 
until the paroxysm was over. They did this once in 
the case of Croesus. Croesus, who was now a vener- 
able man. advanced in years, had been for long time 
the friend and faithful counselor o\ Cambvses's father. 
He had known Cambyses himself from his boyhood. 
and had been charged by his father to watch over 
him and counsel him. and aid him. on all occasions 
which might require it, with his experience and wis- 
dom. Cambyses, too. had been solemnly charged by 
his father Cyrus, at the last interview that he had 
with him before his death, to guard and protect 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 47 

Croesus, as his father's ancient and faithful friend, and 
to treat him, as long as he lived, with the highest 
consideration and honor. 

Under these circumstances, Croesus considered him- 
self justified in remonstrating one day with Cambyses 
against his excesses and his cruelty. He told him 
that he ought not to give himself up to the control 
of such violent and impetuous passions; that, though 
his Persian soldiers and subjects had borne with him 
thus far, he might, by excessive oppression and cru- 
elty, exhaust their forbearance and provoke them to 
revolt against him, and that thus he might suddenly 
lose his power, through his intemperate and inconsid- 
erate use of it. Croesus apologized for offering these 
counsels, saying that he felt bound to warn Camby- 
ses of his danger, in obedience to the injunctions of 
Cyrus, his father. 

Cambyses fell into a violent passion at hearing 
these words. He told Croesus that he was amazed at 
his presumption in daring to offer him advice, and 
then began to load his venerable counselor with the 
bitterest invectives and reproaches. He taunted him 
with his own misfortunes, in losing, as he had done, 
years before, his own kingdom of Lydia, and then ac- 
cused him of having been the means, through his 
foolish counsels, of leading his father, Cyrus, into the 
worst of the difficulties which befell him toward the 
close of his life. At last, becoming more and more 



4 8 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 523 

enraged by the reaction upon himself of his own 
angry utterance, he told Crcesus that he had hated 
him for a long time, and for a long time had wished 
to punish him; "and now," said he, "you have given 
me an opportunity." So saying, he seized his bow, 
and began to tit an arrow to the string. Crcesus fled. 
Cambyses ordered his attendants to pursue him, and 
when they had taken him, to kill him. The officers 
knew that Cambyses would regret his rash and reck- 
less command as soon as his anger should have 
subsided, and so, instead of slaying Crcesus, they 
concealed him. A few days after, when the tyrant 
began to express his remorse and sorrow at having 
destroyed his venerable friend in the heat of passion, 
and to mourn his death, they told him that Crcesus 
was still alive. They had ventured, they said, to save 
him, till they could ascertain whether it was the 
king's real and deliberate determination that he must 
die. The king was overjoyed to find Croesus still 
alive, but he would not forgive those who had been 
instrumental in saving him. He ordered every one of 
them to be executed. 

Cambyses was the more reckless and desperate in 
these tyrannical cruelties because he believed that he 
possessed a sort of charmed life. He had consulted 
an oracle, it seems, in Media, in respect to his pros- 
pects of life, and the oracle had informed him that he 
would die at Ecbatana. Now Ecbatana was one of 



B.C. 523] END OF CAMBYSES 49 

the three great capitals of his empire, Susa and Baby- 
Ion being the others. Ecbatana was the most north- 
erly of these cities, and the most remote from danger. 
Babylon and Susa were the points where the great 
transactions of government chiefly centered, while 
Ecbatana was more particularly the private residence 
of the kings. It was their refuge in danger, their re- 
treat in sickness and age. In a word, Susa was their 
seat of government, Babylon their great commercial 
emporium, but Ecbatana was their home. 

And thus as the oracle, when Cambyses inquired 
in respect to the circumstances of his death, had said 
that it was decreed by the fates that he should die at 
Ecbatana, it meant, as he supposed, that he should 
die in peace, in his bed, at the close of the usual 
period allotted to the life of man. Considering thus 
that the fates had removed all danger of a sudden 
and violent death from his path, he abandoned him- 
self to his career of vice and folly, remembering only 
the substance of the oracle, while the particular form 
of words in which it was expressed passed from his 
mind. 

At length Cambyses, after completing his con- 
quests in Egypt, returned to the northward, along the 
shores of the Mediterranean Sea, until he came into 
Syria. The province of Galilee, so often mentioned 
in the sacred Scriptures, was a part of Syria. In 
traversing Galilee at the head of the detachment of 

M. of H.— 17— 4 



5 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 52a 

troops that was accompanying him, Cambyses came, 
one day, to a small town, and encamped there. The 
town itself was of so little importance that Cambyses 
did not, at the time of his arriving at it, even know 
its name. His encampment at the place, however, 
was marked by a very memorable event, namely, he 
met with a herald here, who was traveling through 
Syria, saying that he had been sent from Susa to pro- 
claim to the people of Syria that Smerdis, the son of 
Cyrus, had assumed the throne, and to enjoin upon 
them all to obey no orders except such as should 
come from him! 

Cambyses had supposed that Smerdis was dead. 
Prexaspes, when he had returned from Susa, had 
reported that he had killed him. He now, however, 
sent for Prexaspes, and demanded of him what this 
proclamation could mean. Prexaspes renewed, and 
insisted upon, his declaration that Smerdis was dead. 
He had destroyed him with his own hands, and had 
seen him buried. "If the dead can rise from the 
grave," added Prexaspes, "then Smerdis may, per- 
haps, raise a revolt and appear against you; but not 
otherwise." 

Prexaspes then recommended that the king should 
send and seize the herald, and inquire particularly of 
him in respect to the government in whose name he 
was acting. Cambyses did so. The herald was 
taken and brought before the king. On being ques- 



B.C. 522] END OF CAMBYSES 51 

tioned whether it was true that Smerdis had really 
assumed the government and commissioned him to 
make proclamation of the fact, he replied that it was 
so. He had not seen Smerdis himself, he said, for he 
kept himself shut up very closely in his palace; but 
he was informed of his accession by one of the ma- 
gians whom Cambyses had left in command. It was 
by him, he said, that he had been commissioned to 
proclaim Smerdis as king. 

Prexaspes then said that he had no doubt that the 
two magians whom Cambyses had left in charge of 
the government had contrived to seize the throne. 
He reminded Cambyses that the name of one of them 
was Smerdis, and that probably that was the Smerdis 
who was usurping the supreme command. Cambyses 
said that he was convinced that this supposition was 
true. His dream, in which he had seen a vision of 
Smerdis, with his head reaching to the heavens, re- 
ferred, he had no doubt, to the magian Smerdis, and 
not to his brother. He began bitterly to reproach 
himself for having caused his innocent brother to be 
put to death; but the remorse which he thus felt for 
his crime, in assassinating an imaginary rival, soon 
gave way to rage and resentment against the real 
usurper. He called for his horse, and began to mount 
him in hot haste, to give immediate orders, and 
make immediate preparations for marching to Susa. 

As he bounded into the saddle, with his mind in 



52 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 522 

this state of reckless desperation, the sheath, by some 
accident or by some carelessness caused by his head- 
long haste, fell from his sword, and the naked point 
of the weapon pierced his thigh. The attendants took 
him from his horse, and conveyed him again to his 
tent. The wound, on examination, proved to be a 
very dangerous one, and the strong passions, the vex- 
ation, the disappointment, the impotent rage, which 
were agitating the mind of the patient, exerted an in- 
fluence extremely unfavorable to recovery. Cambyses, 
terrified at the prospect of death, asked what was the 
name of the town where he was lying. They told 
him it was Ecbatana. 

He had never thought before of the possibility that 
there might be some other Ecbatana besides his splen- 
did royal retreat in Media ; but now, when he learned 
that that was the name of the place where he was 
then encamped, he felt sure that his hour was come, 
and he was overwhelmed with remorse and despair. 

He suffered, too, inconceivable pain and anguish 
from his wound. The sword had pierced to the 
bone, and the inflammation which had supervened 
was of the worst character. After some days, the 
acuteness of the agony which he at first endured 
passed gradually away, though the extent of the in- 
jury resulting from the wound was growing every 
day greater and more hopeless. The sufferer lay, 
pale, emaciated, and wretched, on his couch, his mind, 



B.C. 521] END OF CAMBYSES $3 

in every interval of bodily agony, filling up the void 
with the more dreadful sufferings of horror and de- 
spair. 

At length, on the twentieth day after his wound 
had been received, he called the leading nobles of his 
court and officers of his army about his bed-side, and 
said to them that he was about to die, and that he 
was compelled, by the calamity which had befallen 
him, to declare to them what he would otherwise 
have continued to keep concealed. The person who 
had usurped the throne under the name of Smerdis, 
he now said, was not, and could not be, his brother 
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. He then proceeded to 
give them an account of the manner in which his 
fears in respect to his brother had been excited by 
his dream, and of the desperate remedy that he had 
resorted to in ordering him to be killed. He believed, 
he said, that the usurper was Smerdis the magian, 
whom he had left as one of the regents when he set 
out on his Egyptian campaign. He urged them, there- 
fore, not to submit to his sway, but to go back to 
Media, and if they could not conquer him and put 
him down by open war, to destroy him by deceit 
and stratagem, or in any way whatever by which the 
end could be accomplished. Cambyses urged this 
with so much of the spirit of hatred and revenge 
beaming in his hollow and glassy eye as to show 
that sickness, pain, and the approach of death, which 



54 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 521 

had made so total a change in the wretched sufferer's 
outward condition, had altered nothing within. 

Very soon after making this communication to his 
nobles, Cambyses expired. 

It will well illustrate the estimate which those who 
knew him best, formed of this great hero's character, 
to state, that those who heard this solemn declara- 
tion did not believe one word of it from beginning to 
end. They supposed that the. whole story which the 
dying tyrant had told them, although he had scarcely 
breath enough left to tell it, was a fabrication, dic- 
tated by his fraternal jealousy and hate. They be- 
lieved that it was really the true Smerdis who had 
been proclaimed king, and that Cambyses had in- 
vented, in his dying moments, the story of his hav- 
ing killed him, in order to prevent the Persians from 
submitting peaceably to his reign. 




CHAPTER III. 

Smerdis the Magian. 

Usurpation of the magians. — Circumstances favoring it. — Murder of Smerdis 
not known. — He is supposed to be alive. — Precautions taken by Smerdis. 
— Effect of Cambyses's measures. — Opinion in regard to Smerdis. — Ac- 
quiescence of the people. — Dangerous situation of Smerdis. — Arrange- 
ment with Patizithes. — Smerdis lives in retirement. — Special grounds 
of apprehension. — Cambyses's wives. — Smerdis appropriates them. — 
Phsedyma. — Measures of Otanes. — Otanes's communications with his 
daughter. — Her replies. — Pheedyma discovers the deception. — Otanes and 
the six nobles. — Arrival of Darius. — Secret consultations. — Various opin- 
ions. — Views of Darius. — Apology for a falsehood. — Opinion of 
Gobryas. — Uneasiness of the magi. — Situation of Prexaspes. — Measures 
of the magi. — An assembly of the people. — Decision of Prexaspes. — His 
speech from the tower. — Death of Prexaspes. — The conspirators. — The 
omen. — The conspirators enter the palace. — Combat with the magi. — 
Flight of Smerdis. — Smerdis is killed. — Exultation of the conspirators. — 
General massacre of the magians. 

Cambyses and his friends had been right, in their 
conjectures that it was Smerdis the magian 
who had usurped the Persian throne. This 
Smerdis resembled, it was said, the son of Cyrus in 
his personal appearance as well as in name. The other 
magian who had been associated with him in the 
regency when Cambyses set out from Persia on his 
Egyptian campaign was his brother. His name was 
Patizithes. When Cyrus had been some time absent, 
these magians, having in the mean time, perhaps, 

{55) 



$6 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

heard unfavorable accounts of his conduct and charac- 
ter, and knowing the effect which such wanton 
tyranny must have in alienating from him the alle- 
giance of his subjects, conceived the design of taking 
possession of the empire in their own name. The 
great distance of Cambyses and his army from home, 
and his long-continued absence, favored this plan. 
Their own position, too, as they were already in 
possession of the capitals and the fortresses of the 
country, aided them; and then the name of Smerdis, 
being the same with that of the brother of Cambyses, 
was a circumstance that greatly promoted the success 
of the undertaking. In addition to all these general 
advantages, the cruelty of Cambyses was the means 
of furnishing them with a .most opportune occasion 
for putting their plans into execution. 

The reader will recollect that, as was related in 
the last chapter, Cambyses first sent his brother 
Smerdis home, and afterward, when alarmed by his 
dream, he sent Prexaspes to murder him. Now the 
return of Smerdis was publicly and generally known, 
while his assassination by Prexaspes was kept a pro- 
found secret. Even the Persians connected with 
Cambyses's court in Egypt had not heard of the per- 
petration of this crime, until Cambyses confessed it 
on his dying bed, and even then, as was stated in 
the last chapter, they did not believe it. It is not 
probable that it was known in Media and Persia; so 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 57 

that, after Prexaspes accomplished his work, and re- 
turned to Cambyses with the report of it, it was 
probably generally supposed that his brother was still 
alive, and was residing somewhere in one or another 
of the royal palaces. 

Such royal personages were often accustomed to 
live thus, in a state of great seclusion, spending their 
time in effeminate pleasures within the walls of their 
palaces, parks, and gardens. When the royal Smer- 
dis, therefore, secretly and suddenly disappeared, it 
would be very easy for the magian Smerdis, with the 
collusion of a moderate number of courtiers and at- 
tendants, to take his place, especially if he continued 
to live in retirement, and exhibited himself as little as 
possible to public view. Thus it was that Cambyses 
himself, by the very crimes which he committed to 
shield himself from all danger of a revolt, opened the 
way which specially invited it, and almost insured 
its success. Every particular step that he took, too, 
helped to promote the end. His sending Smerdis 
home; his waiting an interval, and then sending Prex- 
aspes to destroy him; his ordering his assassination 
to be secret, these, and all the other attendant cir- 
cumstances, were only so many preliminary steps, 
preparing the way for the success of the revolution 
which was to accomplish his ruin. He was, in a 
word, his own destroyer. Like other wicked men, 
he found, in the end, that the schemes of wickedness 



58 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

which he had malignantly aimed at the destruction of 
others, had been all the time slowly and surely work- 
ing out his own. 

The people of Persia, therefore, were prepared by 
Cambyses's own acts to believe that the usurper 
Smerdis was really Cyrus's son, and, next to Cam- 
byses, the heir to the throne. The army of Cambyses, 
too, in Egypt, believed the same. It was natural that 
they should do so for they placed no confidence 
whatever in Cambyses's dying declarations; and since 
intelligence, which seemed to be official, came from 
Susa declaring that Smerdis was still alive, and that 
he had actually taken possession of the throne, there 
was no apparent reason for doubting the fact. Be- 
sides Prexaspes, as soon as Cambyses was dead, 
considered it safer for him to deny than to confess 
having murdered the prince. He therefore declared 
that Cambyses's story was false, and that he had no 
doubt that Smerdis, the monarch in whose name the 
government was administered at Susa, was the son 
of Cyrus, the true and rightful heir to the throne. 
Thus all parties throughout the empire acquiesced 
peaceably in what they supposed to be the legitimate 
succession. 

In the mean time, the usurper had placed himself 
in an exceedingly dizzy and precarious situation, and 
one which it would require a great deal of address 
and skillful management to sustain. The plan ar- 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 59 

ranged between himself and his brother for a division 
of the advantages which they had secured by their 
joint and common cunning was, that Smerdis was to 
enjoy the ease and pleasure, and Patizithes the sub- 
stantial power of the royalty which they had so 
stealthily seized. This was the safest plan. Smerdis, 
by living secluded, and devoting himself to retired 
and private pleasures, was the more likely to escape 
public observation ; while Patizithes, acting as his 
prime minister of state, could attend councils, issue 
orders, review troops, dispatch embassies, and per- 
form all the other outward functions of supreme com- 
mand, with safety as well as pleasure. Patizithes 
seems to have been, in fact, the soul of the whole 
plan. He was ambitious and aspiring in character, 
and if he could only himself enjoy the actual exer- 
cise of royal power, he was willing that his brother 
should enjoy the honor of possessing it. Patizithes, 
therefore, governed the realm, acting, however, in all 
that he did, in Smerdis's name. 

Smerdis, on his part, was content to take posses- 
sion of the palaces, the parks, and the gardens of 
Media and Persia, and to live in them in retired and 
quiet luxury and splendor. He appeared seldom in 
public, and then only under such circumstances as 
should not expose him to any close observation on 
the part of the spectators. His figure, air, and 
manner, and the general cast of his countenance. 



60 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

were very much like those of the prince whom he 
was attempting to personate. There was one mark, 
however, by which he thought that there was danger 
that he might be betrayed, and that was, his ears 
had been cut off. This had been done many years 
before, by command of Cyrus, on account of some 
offense of which he had been guilty. The marks of 
the mutilation could, indeed, on public occasions, be 
concealed by the turban, or helmet, or other head- 
dress which he wore ; but in private there was great 
danger either that the loss of the ears, or the studied 
effort to conceal it, should he observed. Smerdis 
was, therefore, very careful to avoid being seen in 
private, by keeping himself closely secluded. He 
shut himself up in the apartments of his palace at 
Susa, within the citadel, and never invited the Persian 
nobles to visit him there. 

Among the other means of luxury and pleasure 
which Smerdis found in the royal palaces, and which 
he appropriated to his own enjoyment, were Camby- 
ses's wives. In those times, Oriental princes and po- 
tentates,— as is, in fact, the case at the present day, 
in many Oriental countries,— possessed a great num- 
ber of wives, who were bound to them by different 
sorts of matrimonial ties more or less permanent, and 
bringing them into relations more or less intimate 
with their husband and sovereign. These wives 
were in many respects in the condition of slaves: in 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 61 

one particular they were especially so, namely, that on 
the death of a sovereign they descended, like any 
other property, to the heir, who added as many of 
them as he pleased to his own seraglio. Until this 
was done, the unfortunate women were shut up in 
close seclusion on the death of their lord, like mourn- 
ers who retire from the world when suffering any 
great and severe bereavement. 

The wives of Cambyses were appropriated by 
Smerdis to himself on his taking possession of the throne 
and hearing of Cambyses's death. Among them was 
Atossa, who has already been mentioned as the daugh- 
ter of Cyrus, and, of course, the sister of Cambyses as 
well as his wife. In order to prevent these court 
ladies from being the means, in any way, of discover- 
ing the imposture which he was practicing, the ma- 
gian continued to keep them all closely shut up in 
their several separate apartments, only allowing a fa- 
vored few to visit him, one by one, in turn, while he 
prevented their having any communication with one 
another. 

The name of one of these ladies was Phaedyma. 
She was the daughter of a Persian noble of the high- 
est rank and influence, named Otanes. Otanes, as 
well as some other nobles of the court, had observed 
and reflected upon the extraordinary circumstances 
connected with the accession of Smerdis to the throne, 
and the singular mode of life that he led in seclud- 



62 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

ing himself, in a manner so extraordinary for a Per- 
sian monarch, from all intercourse with his nobles and 
his people. The suspicions of Otanes and his associ- 
ates were excited, but no one dared to communicate 
his thoughts to the others. At length, however, 
Otanes, who was a man of great energy as well as 
sagacity and discretion, resolved that he would take 
some measures to ascertain the truth. 

He first sent a messenger to Phsedyma, his daugh- 
ter, asking of her whether it was really Smerdis, the 
son of Cyrus, who received her when she went to 
visit the king. Phsedyma, in return, sent her father 
word that she did not know, for she had never seen 
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, before the death of Cam- 
byses. She therefore could not say, of her own per- 
sonal knowledge, whether the king was the genuine 
Smerdis or not. Otanes then sent to Phaedyma a sec- 
ond time, requesting her to ask the queen Atossa. 
Atossa was the sister of Smerdis the prince, and had 
known him from his childhood. Phaedyma sent back 
word to her father that she could not speak to Atossa, 
for she was kept closely shut up in her own apart- 
ments, without the opportunity to communicate with 
any one. Otanes then sent a third time to his daugh- 
ter, telling her that there was one remaining mode by 
which she might ascertain the truth, and that was, 
the next time that she visited the king, to feel for his 
ears when he was asleep. If it was Smerdis the ma- 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 63 

gian, she would find that he had none. He urged 
his daughter to do this by saying that, if the pre- 
tended king was really an impostor, the impdsture 
ought to be made known, and that she, being of no- 
ble birth, ought to have the courage and energy to 
assist in discovering it. To this Phaedyma replied 
that she would do as her father desired, though she 
knew that she hazarded her life in the attempt. "If 
he has no ears," said she, "and if I awaken him in 
attempting to feel for them, he will kill me; I am 
sure that he will kill me on the spot." 

The next time that it came to Phsedyma's turn to 
visit the king, she did as her father had requested. 
She passed her hand very cautiously beneath the 
king's turban, and found that his ears had been cut 
off close to his head. Early in the morning she com- 
municated the knowledge of the fact to her father. 

Otanes immediately made the case known to two 
of his friends, Persian nobles, who had, with him, 
suspected the imposture, and had consulted together 
before in respect to the means of detecting it. The 
question was, what was now to be done. After some 
deliberation, it was agreed that each of them should 
communicate the discovery which they had made to 
one other person, such as each should select from 
among the circle of his friends as the one on whose 
resolution, prudence, and fidelity he could most im- 
plicitly rely. This was done, and the number ad- 



64 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

mitted to the secret was thus increased to six. At 
this juncture it happened that Darius, the son of 
Hystaspes, the young man who has already been 
mentioned as the subject of Cyrus's dream, came to 
Susa. Darius was a man of great prominence and 
popularity. His father, Hystaspes, was at that time the 
governor of the province of Persia, and Darius had 
been residing with him in that country. As soon as 
the six conspirators heard of his arrival, they admitted 
him to their councils, and thus their number was in- 
creased to seven. 

They immediately began to hold secret consulta- 
tions for the purpose of determining how it was best 
to proceed, first binding themselves by the most sol- 
emn oaths never to betray one another, however their 
undertaking might end. Darius told them that he 
had himself discovered the imposture and usurpation 
of Smerdis, and that he had come from Persia for 
the purpose of slaying him; and that now, since it 
appeared that the secret was known to so many, he 
was of opinion that they ought to act at once with 
the utmost decision. He thought there would be 
great danger in delay. 

Otanes, on the other hand, thought that they were 
not yet ready for action. They must first increase 
their numbers. Seven persons were too few to at- 
tempt to revolutionize an empire. He commended 
the courage and resolution which Darius displayed, 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 65 

but he thought that a more cautious and deliberate 
policy would be far more likely to conduct them to 
a safe result. 

Darius replied that the course which Otanes recom- 
mended would certainly ruin them. "If we make 
many other persons acquainted with our plans," said 
he, "there will be some, notwithstanding all our pre- 
cautions, who will betray us, for the sake of the im- 
mense rewards which they well know they would 
receive in that case from the king. No," he added, 
"we must act ourselves, and alone. We must do 
nothing to excite suspicion, but must go at once into 
the palace, penetrate boldly into Smerdis's presence, 
and slay him before he has time to suspect our de- 
signs." 

"But we can not get into his presence," replied 
Otanes. "There are guards stationed at every gate 
and door, who will not allow us to pass. If we at- 
tempt to kill them, a tumult will be immediately 
raised, and the alarm given, and all our designs will 
thus be baffled." 

"There will be little difficulty about the guards," 
said Darius. "They know us all, and, from deference 
to our rank and station, they will let us pass without 
suspicion, especially if we act boldly and promptly, 
and do not give them time to stop and consider 
what to do. Besides, I can say that I have just ar- 
rived from Persia with important dispatches for the 

M. ofH.— 17— 5 



66 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

king, and that 1 must be admitted immediately into 
his presence. If a falsehood must be told, so let it 
be. The urgency of the crisis demands and sanc- 
tions it." 

It may seem strange to the reader, considering the 
ideas and habits of the times, that Darius should 
have even thought it necessary to apologize to his 
confederates for his proposal of employing falsehood 
in the accomplishment o( their plans; and it is, in 
fact, altogether probable that the apology which he is 
made to utter is his historian's, and not his own. 

The other conspirators had remained silent during 
this discussion between Darius and Otanes; but now 
a third, whose name was Gobryas, expressed his opin- 
ion in favor of the course which Darius recommended. 
He was aware, he said, that, in attempting to force 
their way into the king's presence and kill him by a 
sudden assault, they exposed themselves to the most 
imminent danger; but it was better for them to die 
in the manly attempt to bring back the imperial 
power again into Persian hands, where it properly 
belonged, than to aquiesce any further in its contin- 
uance in the possession of the ignoble Median priests 
who had so treacherously usurped it. 

To this counsel they all finally agreed, and began 
to make arrangements for carrying their desperate 
enterprise into execution. 

In the mean time, very extraordinary events were 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 67 

transpiring in another part of the city. The two 
magi, Smerdis the king and Patizithes his brother, 
had some cause, it seems, to fear that the nobles 
about the court, and the officers of the Persian army, 
were not without suspicions that the reigning mon- 
arch was not the real son of Cyrus. Rumors that 
Smerdis had been killed by Prexaspes, at the com- 
mand of Cambyses, were in circulation. These ru- 
mors were contradicted, it is true, in private, by 
Prexaspes, whenever he was forced to speak of the 
subject; but he generally avoided it; and he spoke, 
when he spoke at all, in that timid and undecided 
tone which men usually assume when they are per- 
sisting in a lie. In the mean time, the gloomy recol- 
lections of his past life, the memory of his murdered 
son, remorse for his own crime in the assassination 
of Smerdis, and anxiety on account of the extremely 
dangerous position in which he had placed himself, 
by his false denial of it, all conspired to harass his 
mind with perpetual restlessness and misery, and to 
make life a burden. 

In order to do something to quiet the suspicions 
which the magi feared were prevailing, they did not 
know how extensively, they conceived the plan of 
inducing Prexaspes to declare in a more public and 
formal manner what he had been asserting timidly in 
private, namely, that Smerdis had not been killed. 
They accordingly convened an assembly of the peo- 



68 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

pie in a court-yard of the palace, or perhaps took ad- 
vantage of some gathering casually convened, and 
proposed that Prexaspes should address them from a 
neighboring tower. Prexaspes was a man of high 
rank and of great influence, and the magi thought 
that his public espousal of their cause, and his open 
and decided contradiction of the rumor that he had 
killed Cambyses's brother, would fully convince the 
Persians that it was really the rightful monarch that 
had taken possession of the throne. 

But the strength even of a strong man, when he 
has a lie to carry, soon becomes very small. That of 
Prexaspes was already almost exhausted and gone. 
He had been wavering and hesitating before, and this 
proposal, that he should commit himself so formally 
and solemnly, and in so public a manner, to state- 
ments wholly and absolutely untrue, brought him to 
a stand. He decided, desperately, in his own mind, 
that he would go on in this course of falsehood, re- 
morse, and wretchedness no longer. He, however, 
pretended to accede to the propositions of the magi. 
He ascended the tower,, and began to address the 
people. Instead, however, of denying that he had 
murdered Smerdis, he fully confessed to the astonished 
audience that he had really committed that crime; he 
openly denounced the reigning Smerdis as an im- 
postor, and called upon all who heard him to rise at 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 69 

once, destroy the treacherous usurper, and vindicate 
the rights of the true Persian line. As he went on, 
with vehement voice and gestures, in this speech, the 
utterance of which he knew sealed his own destruc- 
tion, he became more and more excited and reckless. 
He denounced his hearers in the severest language if 
they failed to obey his injunctions, and imprecated 
upon them, in that event, all the curses of Heaven. 
The people listened to this strange and sudden frensy 
of eloquence in utter amazement, , motionless and 
silent; and before they or the officers of the king's 
household who were present had time even to con- 
sider what to do, Prexaspes, coming abruptly to the 
conclusion of his harangue, threw himself headlong 
from the parapet of the tower, and came down 
among them, lifeless and mangled, on the pavement 
below. 

Of course, all was now tumult and commotion in 
the court-yard, and it happened to be just at this 
juncture that the seven conspirators came from the 
place of their consultation to the palace, with a view 
of executing their plans. They were soon informed 
of what had taken place. Otanes was now again 
disposed to postpone their attempt upon the life of 
the king. The event which had occurred changed, 
he said, the aspect of the subject, and they must 
wait until the tumult and excitement should have 



70 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

somewhat subsided. But Darius was more eager than 
ever in favor of instantaneous action. He said that 
there was not a moment to be lost; for the magi, 
so soon as they should be informed of the dec- 
larations and of the death of Prexaspes, would be 
alarmed, and would take at once the most effectual 
precautions to guard against any sudden assault or 
surprise. 

These arguments, at the very time in which Da- 
rius was offering them with so much vehemence and 
earnestness, were strengthened by a very singular 
sort of confirmation; for while the conspirators stood 
undetermined, they saw a flock of birds moving 
across the sky, which, on their more attentively re- 
garding them, proved to be seven hawks pursuing 
two vultures. This they regarded an omen, intended 
to signify to them, by a divine intimation, that they 
ought to proceed. They hesitated, therefore, no 
longer. 

They went together to the outer gates of the palace. 
The action of the guards who were stationed there 
was just what Darius had predicted that it would be. 
Awed by the imposing spectacle of the approach of 
seven nobles of the highest distinction, who were 
advancing, too, with an earnest and confident air, as 
if expecting no obstacle to their admission, they gave 
way at once, and allowed them to enter. The con- 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGI AN 71 

spirators went on until they came to the inner apart- 
ments, where they found eunuchs in attendance at 
the doors. The eunuchs resisted, and demanded 
angrily why the guards had let the strangers in. 
"Kill them," said the conspirators, and immediately 
began to cut them down. The magi were within, 
already in consternation at the disclosures of Prex- 
aspes, of which they had just been informed. They 
heard the tumult and the outcries of the eunuchs at 
the doors, and seized their arms, the one a bow and 
the other a spear. The conspirators rushed in. The 
bow was useless in the close combat which ensued, 
and the magian who had taken it turned and fled. 
The other defended himself with his spear for a 
moment, and wounded severely two of his assailants. 
The wounded conspirators fell. Three others of the 
number continued the unequal combat with the armed 
magian, while Darius and Gobryas rushed in pursuit 
of the other. 

The flying magian ran from one apartment to an- 
other until he reached a dark room, into which the 
blind instinct of fear prompted him to rush, in the 
vain hope of concealment. Gobryas was foremost; he 
seized the wretched fugitive by the waist, and strug- 
gled to hold him, while the magian struggled to get 
free. Gobryas called upon Darius, who was close be- 
hind him, to strike. Darius, brandishing his sword, 



72 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

looked earnestly into the obscure retreat, that he 
might see where to strike. 

"Strike!" exclaimed Gobryas. "Why do you not 
strike ?" 

"I can not see," said Darius, "and 1 am afraid of 
wounding you." 

"No matter," said Gobryas, struggling desperately 
all the time with his frantic victim. "Strike quick, 
if you kill us both." 

Darius struck. Gobryas loosened his hold, and 
the magian fell upon the floor, and there, stabbed 
again through the heart by Darius's sword, almost 
immediately ceased to breathe. 

They dragged the body to the light, and cut off 
the head. They did the same with the other magian, 
whom they found that their confederates had killed 
when they returned to the apartments where they had 
left them contending. The whole body of the con- 
spirators then, except the two who were wounded, 
exulting in their success, and wild with the excite- 
ment which such deeds always awaken, went forth 
into the streets of the city, bearing the heads upon 
pikes as the trophies of their victory. They sum- 
moned the Persian soldiers to arms, and announced 
every where that they had ascertained that the king 
was a priest and an impostor, and not their legiti- 
mate sovereign, and that they had consequently killed 



B.C. 520] SMERDIS THE MAGIAN 73 

him. They called upon the people to kill the magians 
wherever they could find them, as if the whole class 
were implicated in the guilt of the usurping brothers. 
The populace in all countries are easily excited by 
such denunciations and appeals as these. The Per- 
sians armed themselves, and ran to and fro every 
where in pursuit of the unhappy magians, and before 
night vast numbers of them were slain 




CHAPTER IV. 

The Accession of Darius. 

Confusion at Susa.— No heir to the throne.— Five days' interregnum.-- Pro- 
visional government.— Consultation of the confederates. — Otanes in 
favor of a republic— Otanes's republic— Principles of representation.— 
I,arge assemblies. — Nature of ancient republics.— Nature of representa- 
tive republic— Megabyzus.— He opposes the plan of Otanes.— Speech of 
Megabyzus. — He proposes an oligarchy. — Speech of Darius. — He advo- 
cates a monarchy. — Four of the seven confederates concur with Darius. 
— Otanes withdraws.— Agreement made by the rest. — Singular mode of 
deciding which should be the king.— The groom CEbases. — His method 
of making Darius's horse neigh. — Probable truth or falsehood of this 
account.— Ancient statesmen. — Their character and position. — The con- 
spirators governed, in their decision, by superstitious feelings.— The 
conspirators do homage to Darius.— The equestrian statue. 

For several days after the assassination of the 
magi the city was filled with excitement, tu- 
mults, and confusion. There was no heir, of 
the family of Cyrus, entitled to succeed to the vacant 
throne, for neither Cambyses, nor Smerdis his brother, 
had left any sons. There was, indeed, a daughter of 
Smerdis, named Parmys, and there were also still liv- 
ing two daughters of Cyrus. One was Atossa, whom 
we have already mentioned as having been married to 
Cambyses, her brother, and as having been afterward 
taken by Smerdis the magian as one of his wives. 
These princesses, though of royal lineage, seem neither 
(74) 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 75 

of them to have been disposed to assert any Claims 
to the throne at such a crisis. The mass of the com- 
munity were stupefied with astonishment at the sud- 
den revolution which had occurred. No movement 
was made toward determining the succession. For 
five days nothing was done. 

During this period, all the subordinate functions of 
government in the provinces, cities, and towns, and 
among the various garrisons and encampments of the 
army, went on, of course, as usual, but the general 
administration of the government had no head. The 
seven confederates had been regarded, for the time 
being, as a sort of provisional government, the army 
and the country in general, so far as appears, look- 
ing to them for the means of extrication from the 
political difficulties in which this sudden revolution 
had involved them, and submitting, in the mean 
time, to their direction and control. Such a state of 
things, it was obvious, could not long last; and 
after five days, when the commotion had somewhat 
subsided, they began to consider it necessary to 
make some arrangements of a more permanent char- 
acter, the power to make such arrangements as they 
thought best resting with them alone. They accord- 
ingly met for consultation. 

Herodotus, the historian,* on whose narrative of 

* An account of Herodotus, and of the circumstances under which 
he wrote his history, which will aid the reader very much in forming 



y6 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

these events we have mainly to rely for all the 
information respecting them which is now to be 
attained, gives a very minute and dramatic account 
of the deliberations of the conspirators on this occa- 
sion. The account is, in fact, too dramatic to be 
probably true. 

Otanes, in this discussion, was in favor of estab- 
lishing a republic. He did not think it safe or wise 
to intrust the supreme power again to any single in- 
dividual. It was proved, he said, by universal ex- 
perience, that when any one person was raised to 
such an elevation above his fellow-men, he became 
suspicious, jealous, insolent, and cruel. He lost all 
regard for the welfare and happiness of others, and 
became supremely devoted to the preservation of his 
own greatness and power by any means, however 
tyrannical, and to the accomplishment of the pur- 
poses of his own despotic will. The,. best and most 
valuable citizens were as likely to become the victims 
of his oppression as the worst. In fact, tyrants gen- 
erally chose their favorites, he said, from the most 
abandoned men and women in their realms, such 
characters being the readiest instruments of their 
guilty pleasures and their crimes. Otanes referred 
very particularly to the case of Cambyses as an ex- 

an opinion in respect to the kind and degree of confidence which it 
is proper to place in his statements, will be found in the first chapter 
of our history of Cyrus the Great. 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 77 

ample of the extreme lengths to which the despotic 
insolence and cruelty of a tyrant could go. He re- 
minded his colleagues of the sufferings and terrors 
which they had endured while under his sway, and 
urged them very strongly not to expose themselves 
to such terrible evils and dangers again. He pro- 
posed, therefore, that they should establish a republic, 
under which the officers of government should be 
elected, and questions of public policy be deter- 
mined, in assemblies of the people. 

It must be understood, however, by the reader, that 
a republic, as contemplated and intended by Otanes 
in this speech, was entirely different from the mode 
of government which that word denotes at the pres- 
ent day. They had little idea, in those times, of the 
principle of representation, by which the thousand sep- 
arate and detached communities of a great empire can 
choose delegates, who are to deliberate, speak, and act 
for them in the assemblies where the great governmental 
decisions are ultimately made. By this principle of 
representation, the people can really all share in the 
exercise of power. Without it they can not, for it is 
impossible that the people of a great state can ever 
be brought together in one assembly; nor, even if it 
were practicable to bring them thus together, would 
it be possible for such a concourse to deliberate or act. 
The action of any assembly which goes beyond a very 
few hundred in numbers, is always, in fact, the action 



78 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

exclusively of the small knot of leaders who call and 
manage it. Otanes, therefore, as well as all other ad- 
vocates of republican government in ancient times, 
meant that the supreme power should be exercised, 
not by the great mass of the people included within 
the jurisdiction in question, but by such a portion of 
certain privileged classes as could be brought together 
in the capital. It was such a sort of republic as 
would be formed in this country if the affairs of the 
country at large, and the municipal and domestic in- 
stitutions of all the states, were regulated and con- 
trolled by laws enacted, and by governors appointed, 
at great municipal meetings held in the city of New 
York. 

This was, in fact, the nature of all the republics of 
ancient times. They were generally small, and the 
city in whose free citizens the supreme power resided, 
constituted by far the most important portion of the 
body politic. The Roman republic, however, became 
at one period very large. It overspread almost the 
whole of Europe; but, widely extended as it was in 
territory, and comprising innumerable states and king- 
doms within its jurisdiction, the vast concentration of 
power by which the whole was governed, vested en- 
tirely and exclusively in noisy and tumultuous assem- 
blies convened in the Roman forum. 

Even if the idea of a representative system of gov- 
ernment, such as is adopted in modern times, and by 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 79 

means of which the people of a great and extended 
empire can exercise, conveniently and efficiently, a 
general sovereignty held in common by them all, had 
been understood in ancient times, it is very doubtful 
whether it could, in those times, have been carried 
into effect, for want of certain facilities which are en- 
joyed in the present age, and which seem essential 
for the safe and easy action of so vast and complicated 
a system as a great representative government must 
necessarily be. The regular transaction of business at 
public meetings, and the orderly and successful man- 
agement of any extended system of elections, requires 
a great deal of writing; and the general circulation of 
newspapers, or something exercising the great function 
which it is the object of newspapers to fulfill, that of 
keeping the people at large in some degree informed 
in respect to the progress of public affairs, seems es- 
sential to the successful working of a system of repre- 
sentative government comprising any considerable 
extent of territory. 

However this may be, whether a great representa- 
tive system would or would not have been practicable 
in ancient times if it had been tried, it is certain that 
it was never tried. In all ancient republics, the sover- 
eignty resided, essentially, in a privileged class of the 
people of the capital. The territories governed were 
provinces, held in subjection as dependencies, and 
compelled to pay tribute; and this was the plan which 



80 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

Otanes meant to advocate when recommending a re- 
public, in the Persian council. 

The name of the second speaker in this celebrated 
consultation was Megabyzus. He opposed the plan, of 
Otanes. He concurred fully, he said, in all that 
Otanes had advanced in respect to the evils of a mon- 
archy, and to the oppression and tyranny to which a 
people were exposed whose liberties and lives were 
subject to the despotic control of a single human will. 
But in order to avoid one extreme, it was not neces- 
sary to run into the evils of the other. The dis- 
advantages and dangers of popular control in the 
management of the affairs of state were scarcely less 
than those of a despotism. Popular assemblies were 
always, he said, turbulent, passionate, capricious. 
Their decisions were controlled by artful and designing 
demagogues. It was not possible that masses of the 
common people could have either the sagacity to 
form wise counsels, or the energy and steadiness to 
execute them. There could be no deliberation, no 
calmness, no secrecy in their consultations. A popu- 
lace was always governed by excitements, which 
spread among them by a common sympathy; and they 
would give way impetuously to the most senseless 
impulses, as they were urged by their fear, their re- 
sentment, their exultation, their hate, or by any other 
passing emotion of the hour. 

Megabyzus therefore disapproved of both a mon- 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 81 

archy and a republic. He recommended an oligarchy. 
"We are now," said he, "already seven. Let us 
select from the leading nobles in the court and offi- 
cers of the army a small number of men, eminent for 
talents and virtue, and thus form a select and compe- 
tent body of men, which shall be the depository of 
the supreme power. Such a plan avoids the evils 
and inconveniences of both the other systems. There 
can be no tyranny or oppression under such a system; 
for, if any one of so large a number should be in- 
clined to abuse his power, he will be restrained by 
the rest. On the other hand, the number will not be 
so large as to preclude prudence and deliberation in 
counsel, and the highest efficiency and energy in car- 
rying counsels into effect." 

When Megabyzus had completed his speech, Darius 
expressed his opinion. He said that the arguments 
of those who had already spoken appeared plausible, 
but that the speakers had not dealt quite fairly by 
the different systems whose merits they had discussed, 
since they had compared a good administration of 
one form of government with a bad administration 
of another. Every thing human was, he admitted, 
subject to imperfection and liable to abuse; but on 
the supposition that each of the three forms which 
had been proposed were equally well administered, the 
advantage, he thought, would be strongly on the side 
of monarchy. Control exercised by a single mind and 

M. of H.— 17— 6 



82 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

will was far more concentrated and efficient than that 
proceeding from any conceivable combination. The 
forming of plans could be, in that case, more secret and 
wary, and the execution of them more immediate and 
prompt. Where power was lodged in many hands, 
all energetic exercise of it was paralyzed by the dissen- 
sions, the animosities, and the contending struggles of 
envious and jealous rivals. These struggles, in fact, 
usually resulted in the predominance of some one, 
more energetic or more successful than the rest, the 
aristocracy or the democracy running thus, of its own 
accord, to a despotism in the end, showing that there 
were natural causes always tending to the subjec- 
tion of nations of men to the control of one single 
will. 

Besides all this, Darius added, in conclusion, that 
the Persians had always been accustomed to a mon- 
archy, and it would be a very dangerous experiment 
to attempt to introduce a new system, which would 
require so great a change in all the habits and usages 
of the people. 

Thus the consultation went on. At the end of it, 
it appeared that four out of the seven agreed with 
Darius in preferring a monarchy. This was a major- 
ity, and thus the question seemed to be settled. 
Otanes said that he would make no opposition to 
any measures which they might adopt to carry their 
decision into effect, but that he would not himself be 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS -83 

subject to the monarchy which they might establish. 
"I do not wish," he added, "either to govern others 
or to have others govern me. You may establish a 
kingdom, therefore, if you choose, and designate the 
monarch rn any mode that you see fit to adopt, but 
he must not consider me as one of his subjects. I 
myself, and all my family and dependents, must be 
wholly free from his control." 

This was a very unreasonable proposition, unless, 
indeed, Otanes was willing to withdraw altogether 
from the community to which he thus refused to 
be subject; for, by residing within it, he necessa- 
rily enjoyed its protection, and ought, therefore, to 
bear his portion of its burdens, and to be amenable 
to its laws. Notwithstanding this, however, the con- 
spirators acceded to the proposal, and Otanes with- 
drew. 

The remaining six of the confederates then pro- 
ceeded with their arrangements for the establishment of 
a monarchy. They first agreed that one of their own 
number should be the king, and that on whomsoever 
the choice should fall, the other five, while they sub- 
mitted to his dominion, should always enjoy peculiar 
privileges and honors at his court. They were at all 
times to have free access to the palaces and to the 
presence of the king, and it was from among their 
daughters alone that the king was to choose his 
wives. These and some other similar points having 



84 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

been arranged, the manner of deciding which of the 
six should be the king remained to be determined. 
The plan which they adopted, and the circumstances 
connected with the execution of it. constitute, cer- 
tainly, one of the most extraordinary of all the strange 
transactions recorded in ancient times. It is gravely 
related by Herodotus as sober truth. How far it 
is to be considered as by any possibility credi- 
ble, the reader must judge, after knowing what the 
story is. 

They agreed, then, that on the following morning 
they would all meet on horseback at a place agreed 
upon beyond the walls of the city, and that the one 
whose horse should neigh first should be the king! 
The time when this ridiculous ceremony was to be 
performed was sunrise. 

As soon as this arrangement was made the parties 
separated, and each went to his own home. Darius 
called his groom, whose name was CEbases, and or- 
dered him to have his horse ready at sunrise on the 
next morning, explaining to him, at the same time, 
the plan which had been formed for electing the 
king. "If that is the mode which is to be adopted," 
said CEbases, "you need have no concern, for I can 
arrange it very easily so as to have the lot fall upon 
you." Darius expressed a strong desire to have this 
accomplished, if it were possible, and CEbases went 
away. 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 85 

The method which CEbases adopted was to lead 
Darius's horse out to the ground that evening, in 
company with another, the favorite companion, it 
seems, of the animal. Now the attachment of the 
horse to his companion is very strong, and his recol- 
lection of localities very vivid, and CEbases expected 
that when the horse should approach the ground on 
the following morning, he would be reminded of the 
company which he enjoyed there the night before, 
and neigh. The result was as he anticipated. As the 
horsemen rode up to the appointed place, the horse 
of Darius neighed the first, and Darius was unani- 
mously acknowledged king. 

In respect to the credibility of this famous story, 
the first thought which arises in the mind is, that it 
is utterly impossible that sane men, acting in so mo- 
mentous a crisis, and where interests so vast and 
extended were at stake, could have resorted to a plan 
so childish and ridiculous as this. Such a mode of 
designating a leader, seriously adopted, would have 
done discredit to a troop of boys making arrange- 
ments for a holiday; and yet here was an empire ex- 
tending for thousands of miles through the heart of a 
vast continent, comprising, probably, fifty nations and 
many millions of people, with capitals, palaces, armies, 
fleets, and all the other appointments and machinery 
of an immense dominion, to be appropriated and dis- 
posed of absolutely, and, so far as they could see, 



86 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

forever. It seems incredible that men possessing such 
intelligence, and information, and extent of view as 
we should suppose that officers of their rank and sta- 
tion would necessarily acquire, could have attempted 
to decide such a momentous question in so ridiculous 
and trivial a manner. And yet the account is seri- 
ously recorded by Herodotus as sober history, and 
the story has been related again and again, from 
that day to this, by every successive generation of 
historians, without any particular question of its 
truth. 

And it may possibly be that it is true. It is a case 
in which the apparent improbability is far greater than 
the real. In the first place, it would seem that, in all 
ages of the world, the acts and decisions of men oc- 
cupying positions of the most absolute and exalted 
power have been controlled, to a much greater de- 
gree, by caprice and by momentary impulse, than 
mankind have generally supposed. Looking up as we 
do to these vast elevations from below, they seem in- 
vested with a certain sublimity and grandeur which 
we imagine must continually impress the minds of 
those who occupy them, and expand and strengthen 
their powers, and lead them to act, in all respects, 
with the circumspection, the deliberation, and the far- 
reaching sagacity which the emergencies continually 
arising seem to require. And this is, in fact, in some 
degree the case with the statesmen and political lead- 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS 87 

ers raised to power under the constitutional govern- 
ments of modern times. Such statesmen are clothed 
with their high authority, in one way or another, by 
the combined and deliberate action of vast masses of 
men, and every step which they take is watched, in 
reference to its influence on the condition and wel- 
fare of these masses, by many millions; so that such 
men live and act under a continual sense of respon- 
sibility, and they appreciate, in some degree, the mo- 
mentous importance of their doings. But the absolute 
and independent sovereigns of the Old World, who 
held their power by conquest or by inheritance, 
though raised sometimes to very vast and giddy ele- 
vations, seem to have been unconscious, in many 
instances, of the dignity and grandeur of their stand- 
ing, and to have considered their acts only as they 
affected their own personal and temporary interests. 
Thus, though placed on a great elevation, they took 
only very narrow and circumscribed views; they saw 
nothing but the objects immediately around them; 
and they often acted, accordingly, in the most friv- 
olous and capricious manner. 

It was so, undoubtedly, with these six conspira- 
tors. In deciding which of their number should be 
king, they thought nothing of the interests of the vast 
realms, and of the countless millions of people whose 
government was to be provided for. The question, 
as they considered it, was doubtless merely which of 



88 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

them should have possession of the royal palaces, and 
be the center and the object of royal pomp and 
parade in the festivities and celebrations of the capi- 
tal. 

And in the mode of decision which they adopted, 
it may be that some degree of superstitious feeling 
mingled. The action and the voices of animals were 
considered, in those days, as supernatural omens, in- 
dicating the will of Heaven. These conspirators may 
have expected, accordingly, in the neighing of the 
horse, a sort of divine intimation in respect to the 
disposition of the crown. This idea is confirmed by 
the statement which the account of this transaction 
contains, that immediately after the neighing of Da- 
rius's horse, it thundered, although there were no 
clouds in the sky from which the thunder could be 
supposed naturally to come. The conspirators, at all 
events, considered it solemnly decided that Darius 
was to be king. They all dismounted from their 
horses and knelt around him, in acknowledgment of 
their allegiance and subjection. 

It seems that Darius, after he became established 
on his throne, considered the contrivance by which, 
through the assistance of his groom, he had obtained 
the prize, not as an act of fraud which it was in- 
cumbent on him to conceal, but as one of brilliant 
sagacity which he was to avow and glory in. He 
caused a magnificent equestrian statue to be sculp- 



B.C. 520] ACCESSION OF DARIUS $9 

tured, representing himself mounted on his neighing 
horse. This statue he set up in a public place with 
this inscription: 

Darius, son of Hystaspes, obtained the sover- 
eignty of Persia by the sagacity of his horse and 
the ingenious contrivance of cebases his groom. 




CHAPTER V. 

i 

The Provinces. 

Intaphernes. — He is denied admittance to Darius. — Intaphernes's cruelty to 
the two guards. — Darius's apprehensions. — Intaphernes and family ar- 
rested. — They are condemned to die. — Alternative offered to Inta- 
phernes's wife. — Her strange decision. — Death of Intaphernes. — The 
provinces. — The governors. — Their independence.— Power of the gov- 
ernors. — Oretes, governor of Sardis. — Conversation between Oretes and 
Mitrobates. — Polycrates. — Dominion of Polycrates. — I<etter of Amasis. 

— Suggestion of Amasis. — Adopted by Polycrates. — Polycrates throws 
away his ring. — Its singular recovery. — Predictions of Amasis. — Their 
fulfillment. — letter of Oretes. — His hypocrisy. — The pretended treasure. 

— Fears of Polycrates's daughter. — Oretes murders Polycrates. — He 
commits other murders. — Oretes destroys Darius's messenger. — Darius 
is incensed. — Plan of Darius for punishing Oretes. — His proposal.— Com- 
mission of Bagseus. — His plan. — Oretes beheaded. — Divisions of Darius's 
empire. — Tribute of the satrapies. — The white horses. — The gold of 
India. — Mode of gathering it. — The wonderful ants. — Their prodi- 
gious size. 

Several of the events and incidents which occurred 
immediately after the accession of Darius to 
the throne, illustrate in a striking manner the 
degree in which the princes and potentates of ancient 
days were governed by caprice and passionate impulse 
even in their public acts. One of the most remarkable 
of these was the case of Intaphernes. 

Intaphernes was one of the seven conspirators who 
combined to depose the magian and place Darius on 
the throne. By the agreement which they made with 
(90) 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 91 

each other before it was decided which should be the 
king, each of them was to have free access to the 
king's presence at all times. One evening, soon after 
Darius became established on his throne, Intaphernes 
went to the palace, and was proceeding to enter the 
apartment of the king without ceremony, when he was 
stopped by two officers, who told him that the king 
had retired. Intaphernes was incensed at the officer's 
insolence, as he called it. He drew his sword, and 
cut off their noses and their ears. Then he took 
the bridle off from his horse at the palace gate, and 
tied the officers together; and then, leaving them 
in this helpless and miserable condition, he went 
away. 

The officers immediately repaired to the king, and 
presented themselves to him, a frightful spectacle, 
wounded and bleeding, and complaining bitterly of 
Intaphernes as the author of the injuries which they 
had received. The king was at first alarmed for his 
own safety. He feared that the conspirators had all 
combined together to rebel against his authority, and 
that this daring insult offered to his personal attend- 
ants, in his very palace, was the first outbreak of it. 
He accordingly sent for the conspirators, one by one, 
to ask of them whether they approved of what Inta- 
phernes had dont. They promptly disavowed all con- 
nection with Intaphernes in the act, and all approval 
of it, and declared their determination to adhere to the 



92 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

decision that they had made, by which Darius had 
been placed on the throne. 

Darius then, after taking proper precautions to 
guard against any possible attempts at resistance, sent 
soldiers to seize Intaphernes, and also his son, and 
all his family, relatives, and friends who were capable 
o( bearing arms; for he suspected that Intaphernes 
had meditated a rebellion, and he thought that, if so, 
these men would most probably be his accomplices. 
The prisoners were brought before him. There was, 
indeed, no proof that they were engaged in any plan 
of rebellion, nor even that any plan of rebellion what- 
ever had been formed; but this circumstance afforded 
them no protection. The liberties and the lives of all 
subjects were at the supreme and absolute disposal of 
these ancient kings. Darius thought it possible that 
the prisoners had entertained, or might entertain, some 
treasonable designs, and he conceived that he should, 
accordingly, feel safer if they were removed out of 
the way. He decreed, therefore, that they must all die. 

While the preparations were making for the exe- 
cution, the wife of Intaphernes came continually to 
the palace of Darius, begging for an audience, that 
she might intercede for the lives of her friends. Da- 
rius was informed of this, and at last, pretending to 
be moved with compassion for he. distress, he sent 
her word that he would pardon one of the criminals 
for her sake, and that she might decide which one it 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 93 

should be. His real motive in making this proposal 
seems to have been to enjoy the perplexity and an- 
guish which the heart of a woman must suffer in be- 
ing compelled thus to decide, in a question of life 
and death, between a husband and a son. 

The wife of Intaphernes did not decide in favor of 
either of these. She gave the preference, on the other 
hand, to a brother. Darius was very much surprised 
at this result, and sent a messenger to her to inquire 
how it happened that she could pass over and aban- 
don to their fate her husband and her son, in order 
to save the life of her brother, who was certainly to 
be presumed less near and dear to her. To which 
she gave this extraordinary reply, that the loss of her 
husband and her son might perhaps be repaired, since 
it was not impossible that she might be married 
again, and that she might have another son; but 
that, inasmuch as both her father and mother were 
dead, she could never have another brother. The 
death of her present brother would, therefore, be an 
irreparable loss. 

The king was so much pleased with the novelty 
and unexpectedness of this turn of thought, that he 
gave her the life of her son in addition to that of her 
brother. All the rest o( the family circle of relatives 
and friends, together with Intaphernes himself, he or- 
dered to be slain. 

Darius had occasion to be so much displeased, 



94 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

too, shortly after his accession to the throne, with the 
governor of one of his provinces, that he was induced 
to order him to be put to death. The circumstances 
connected with this governor's crime, and the man- 
ner of his execution, illustrate very forcibly the kind 
of government which was administered by these mil- 
itary despots in ancient times. It must be premised 
that great empires, like that over which Darius had 
been called to rule, were generally divided into prov- 
inces. The inhabitants of these provinces, each com- 
munity within its own borders, went on, from year 
to year, in their various pursuits of peaceful industry, 
governed mainly, in their relations to each other, by 
the natural sense of justice instinctive in man, and by 
those thousand local institutions and usages which 
are always springing up in all human communities 
under the influence of this principle. There were 
governors stationed over these provinces, whose main 
duty it was to collect and remit to the king the trib- 
ute which the province was required to furnish him. 
These governors were, of course, also to suppress any 
domestic outbreak of violence, and to repel any for- 
eign invasion which might occur. A sufficient mili- 
tary force was placed at their disposal to enable them 
to fulfill these functions. They paid these troops, of 
course, from sums which they collected in their prov- 
inces under the same system by which they collected 
the tribute. This made them, in a great measure, in- 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 95 

dependent of the king in the maintenance of their 
armies. They thus intrenched themselves in their va- 
rious capitals at the head of these troops, and reigned 
over their respective dominions almost as if they were 
kings themselves. They had, in fact, very little con- 
nection with the supreme monarch, except to send 
him the annual tribute which they had collected from 
their people, and to furnish, also, their quota of troops 
in case of a national war. In the time of our Savior, 
Pilate was such a governor, intrusted by the Ro- 
mans with the charge of Judea, and Matthew was 
one of the tax gatherers employed to collect the 
tribute. 

Of course, the governors of such provinces, as we 
have already said, were in a great measure, independ- 
ent of the king. He had ordinarily, no officers of 
justice whose jurisdiction could control, peacefully, 
such powerful vassals. The only remedy in most 
cases, when they were disobedient and rebellious, was 
to raise an army and go forth to make war upon them, 
as in the case of any foreign state. This was attended 
with great expense, and trouble, and hazard. The 
governors, when ambitious and aspiring, sometimes 
managed their resources with so much energy and 
military skill as to get the victory over their sovereign 
in the contests in which they engaged with them, 
and then they would gain vast accessions to the priv- 
ileges and powers which they exercised in their own 



96 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

departments; and they would sometimes overthrow 
their discomfited sovereign entirely, and take posses- 
sion of his throne themselves in his stead. 

Oretes was the name of one of these governors 
in the time of Darius. He had been placed by Cyrus, 
some years before, in charge of one of the provinces 
into which the kingdom of Lydia had been divided. 
The seat of government was Sardis. He was a capri- 
cious and cruel tyrant, as, in fact, almost all such 
governors were. We will relate an account of one 
of the deeds which he performed some time before 
Darius ascended the throne, and which sufficiently 
illustrates his character. 

He was one day sitting at the gates of his palace 
in Sardis, in conversation with the governor of a 
neighboring territory who had come to visit him. 
The name of this guest was Mitrobates. As the two 
friends were boasting to one another, as such war- 
riors are accustomed to do, of the deeds of valor and 
prowess which they had respectively performed, 
Mitrobates said that Oretes could not make any great 
pretensions to enterprise and bravery so long- as he 
allowed the Greek island of Samos, which was situate 
at a short distance from the Lydian coast, to remain 
independent, when it would be so easy to annex it 
to the Persian empire. "You are afraid of Polycrates, 
I suppose," said he. Polycrates was the king of 
Samos. 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 97 

Oretes was stung by this taunt, but, instead of re- 
venging himself on Mitrobates, the author of it, he 
resolved on destroying Polycrates, though he had no 
reason other than this for any feeling of enmity to- 
ward him. 

Polycrates, although the seat of his dominion was 
a small island in the /Egean Sea, was a very wealthy, 
and powerful, and prosperous prince. All his plans 
and enterprises had been remarkably successful. He 
had built and equipped a powerful fleet, and had 
conquered many islands in the neighborhood of his 
own. He was projecting still wider schemes of con- 
quests, and hoped, in fact, to make himself the 
master of all the seas. 

A very curious incident is related of Polycrates, 
which illustrates very strikingly the childish supersti- 
tion which governed the minds of men in those an- 
cient days. It seems that in the midst of his pros- 
perity, his friend and ally, the King of Egypt, — for 
these events, though narrated here, occurred before 
the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses,— sent to him a 
letter, of which the following is the purport: 

" Amasis, King of Egypt, to Polycrates: — 

"It always gives me great satisfaction and pleas- 
ure to hear of the prosperity of a friend and ally, un- 
less it is too absolutely continuous and uninterrupted. 
Something like an alternation of good and ill fortune 

M. of H.— 17— 7 



98 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

is best for man; I have never known an instance of 
a very long-continued course of unmingled and un- 
interrupted success that did not end, at last, in over- 
whelming and terrible calamity. I am anxious, there- 
fore, for you, and my anxiety will greatly increase if 
this extraordinary and unbroken prosperity should 
continue much longer. I counsel you, therefore, to 
break the current yourself, if fortune will not break 
it. Bring upon yourself some calamity, or loss, or 
suffering, as a means of averting the heavier evils 
which will otherwise inevitably befall you. It is a 
general and substantial welfare only that can be per- 
manent and final." 

Polycrates seemed to think there was good sense 
in this suggestion. He began to look around him to 
see in what way he could bring upon himself some 
moderate calamity or loss, and at length decided on 
the destruction of a very valuable signet ring which 
he kept among his treasures. The ring was made 
with very costly jewels set in gold, and was much 
celebrated both for its exquisite workmanship and also 
for its intrinsic value. The loss of this ring would 
be, he thought, a sufficient calamity to break the evil 
charm of an excessive and unvaried current of good 
fortune. Polycrates, therefore, ordered one of the 
largest vessels in his navy, a fifty-oared galley, to be 
equipped and manned, and, embarking in it with a 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 99 

large company of attendants, he put to sea. When 
he was at some distance from the island, he took 
the ring, and in the presence of all his attendants, he 
threw it forth into the water, and saw it sink, to 
rise, as he supposed, no more. 

But Fortune, it seems, was not to be thus outgen- 
eraled. A few days after Polycrates had returned, a 
certain fisherman on the coast took, in his nets, a 
fish of very extraordinary size and beauty; so extraor- 
dinary, in fact, that he felt it incumbent on him to 
make a present of it to the king. The servants of 
Polycrates, on opening the fish for the purpose of 
preparing it for the table, to their great astonishment 
and gratification, found the ring within. The king 
was overjoyed at thus recovering his lost treasure; 
he had, in fact, repented of his rashness in throwing 
it away, and had been bitterly lamenting its loss. 
His satisfaction and pleasure were, therefore, very 
great in regaining it; and he immediately sent to 
Amasis an account of the whole transaction, expect- 
ing that Amasis would share in his joy. 

Amasis, however, sent word back to him in reply, 
that he considered the return of the ring in that al- 
most miraculous manner as an extremely unfavorable 
omen. "I fear," said he, "that it is decreed by the 
Fates that you must be overwhelmed, at last, by 
some dreadful calamity, and that no measures of pre- 
caution which you can adopt will avail to avert it. 

Lore. 



ioo DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

It seems to me, too," he added, "that it is incum- 
bent on me to withdraw from all alliance and con- 
nection with you, lest I should also, at last, be involved 
in your destined destruction." 

Whether this extraordinary story was true or 
whether it was all fabricated after the fall of Polyc- 
rates, as a dramatic embellishment of his history, we 
can not now know. The result, however, corre- 
sponded with these predictions of Amasis, if they 
were really made; for it was soon after these events 
that the conversation took place at Sardis between 
Oretes and Mitrobates, at the gates of the palace, 
which led Oretes to determine on effecting Polyc- 
rates's destruction. 

In executing the plans which he thus formed, 
Oretes had not the courage and energy necessary for 
an open attack on Polycrates, and he consequently 
resolved on attempting to accomplish his end by 
treachery and stratagem. 

The plan which he devised was this: He sent a 
messenger to Polycrates with a letter of the following 
purport: 

" Oretes, governor of Sardis, to Polycrates of Sa- 
mos: — 

"I am aware, sire, of the plans which you have 
long been entertaining for extending your power 
among the islands and over the waters of the Medi- 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 101 

terranean, until you shall have acquired the supreme 
and absolute dominion of the seas. I should like to 
join you in this enterprise. You have ships and men, 
and I have money. Let us enter into an alliance 
with each other. I have accumulated in my treasur- 
ies a large supply of gold and silver, which I will fur- 
nish for the expenses of the undertaking. If you have 
any doubt of my sincerity in making these offers, and 
of my ability to fulfill them, send some messenger in 
whom you have confidence, and I will lay the evi- 
dence before him." 

Polycrates was much pleased at the prospect of a 
large accession to his funds, and he sent the messen- 
ger, as Oretes had proposed. Oretes prepared to re- 
ceive him by filling a large number of boxes nearly 
full with heavy stones, and then placing a shallow 
layer of gold or silver coin at the top. These boxes 
were then suitably covered and secured, with the fas- 
tenings usually adopted in those days, and placed 
away in the royal treasuries. When the messenger 
arrived, the boxes were brought out and opened, and 
were seen by the messenger to be full, as he sup- 
posed, of gold and silver treasure. The messenger 
went back to Polycrates, and reported that all which 
Oretes had said was true; and Polycrates then deter- 
mined to go to the main land himself to pay Oretes 
a visit, that they might mature together their plans 



io2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

for the intended campaigns. He ordered a fifty-oared 
galley to be prepared to convey him. 

His daughter felt a presentiment, it seems, that 
some calamity was impending. She earnestly en- 
treated her father not to go. She had had a dream, 
she said, about him, which had frightened her exces- 
sively, and which she was convinced portended some 
terrible danger. Polycrates paid no attention to his 
daughter's warnings. She urged them more and more 
earnestly, until, at last, she made her father angry, and 
then she desisted. Polycrates then embarked on board 
his splendid galley, and sailed away. As soon as he 
landed in the dominions of Oretes, the monster seized 
him and put him to death, and then ordered his body 
to be nailed to a cross, for exhibition to all passers 
by, as a public spectacle. The train of attendants 
and servants that accompanied Polycrates on this ex- 
pedition were all made slaves, except a few persons 
of distinction, who were sent home in a shameful and 
disgraceful manner. Among the attendants who were 
detained in captivity by Oretes was a celebrated fam- 
ily physician, named Democedes, whose remarkable 
and romantic adventures will be the subject of the 
next chapter. 

Oretes committed several other murders and as- 
sassinations in this treacherous manner, without any 
just ground for provocation. In these deeds of vio- 
lence and cruelty, he seems to have acted purely 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 103 

under the influence of that wanton and capricious 
malignity which the possession of absolute and irre- 
sponsible power so often engenders in the minds of 
bad men. It is doubtful, however, whether these 
cruelties and crimes would have particularly attracted 
the attention of Darius, so long as he was not him- 
self directly affected by them. The central govern- 
ment, in these ancient empires, generally interested 
itself very little in the contentions and quarrels of the 
governors of the provinces, provided that the tribute 
was efficiently collected and regularly paid. 

A case, however, soon occurred, in Oretes's treach- 
erous and bloody career, which arrested the attention 
of Darius and aroused his ire. Darius had sent a mes- 
senger to Oretes, with certain orders, which, it seems, 
Oretes did not like to obey. After delivering his dis- 
patches, the bearer set out on his return, and was 
never afterward heard of. Darius ascertained, to his 
own satisfaction at least, that Oretes had caused his 
messenger to be waylaid and killed, and that the 
bodies both of horse and rider had been buried, se- 
cretly, in the solitudes of the mountains, in order to 
conceal the evidences of the deed. 

Darius determined on punishing this crime. Some 
consideration was, however, required, in order to de- 
termine in what way his object could best be effected. 
The province of Oretes was at a great distance from 
Susa, and Oretes was strongly established there, at 



io 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

the head of a great force. His guards were bound, it 
is true, to obey the orders of Darius, but it was ques- 
tionable whether they would do so. To raise an 
army and march against the rebellious governor would 
be an expensive and hazardous undertaking, and per- 
haps, too, it would prove that such a measure was 
not necessary. All things considered, Darius deter- 
mined to try the experiment of acting, by his own 
direct orders, upon the troops and guards in Oretes's 
capital, with the intention of resorting subsequently 
to an armed force of his own, if that should be at 
last required. 

He accordingly called together a number of his 
officers and nobles, selecting those on whose resolu- 
tion and fidelity he could most confidently rely, and 
made the following address to them : 

"I have an enterprise which I wish to commit to 
the charge of some one of your number who is will- 
ing to undertake it, which requires no military force, 
and no violent measures of any kind, but only wis- 
dom, sagacity, and courage. I wish to have Oretes, 
the governor of Sardis, brought to me, dead or alive. 
He has perpetrated innumerable crimes, and now, in 
addition to all his other deeds of treacherous violence, 
he has had the intolerable insolence to put to death 
one of my messengers. Which of you will volunteer 
to bring him, dead or alive, to me ? " 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 105 

This proposal awakened a great enthusiasm among 
the nobles to whom it was addressed. Nearly thirty 
of them volunteered their services to execute the 
order. Darius concluded to decide between these 
competitors by lot. The lot fell upon a certain man 
named Bagaeus, and he immediately began to form 
his plans and make his arrangements for the expedi- 
tion. 

He caused a number of different orders to be pre- 
pared, beginning with directions of little moment, 
and proceeding to commands of more and more 
weighty importance, all addressed to the officers of 
Oretes's army and to his guards. These orders were 
all drawn up in writing with great formality, and 
were signed by the name of Darius, and sealed with 
his seal ; they, moreover, named Bagaeus as the offi- 
cer selected by the king to superintend the execution 
of them. Provided with these documents, Bagaeus 
proceeded to Sardis, and presented himself at the 
court of Oretes. He presented his own personal cre- 
dentials, and with them some of his most insignif- 
icant orders. Neither Oretes nor his guards felt any 
disposition to disobey them. Bagaeus, being thus re- 
ceived and recognized as the envoy of the king, con- 
tinued to present new decrees and edicts, from time 
to time, as occasions occurred in which he thought 
the guards would be ready to obey them, until he 
found the habit, on their part, of looking to him as 



106 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

the representative of the supreme power sufficiently 
established; for their disposition to obey him was not 
merely tested, it was strengthened by every new act 
of obedience. When he found, at length, that his 
hold upon the guards was sufficiently strong, he 
produced his two final decrees, one ordering the 
guards to depose Oretes from his power, and the 
other to behead him. Both the commands were 
obeyed. 

The events and incidents which have been de- 
scribed in this chapter were of no great importance 
in themselves, but they illustrate, more forcibly than 
any general description would do, the nature and the 
operation of the government exercised by Darius 
throughout the vast empire over which he found him- 
self presiding. 

Such personal and individual contests and trans- 
actions were not all that occupied his attention. He 
devoted a great deal of thought and of time to the 
work of arranging in a distinct and systematic man- 
ner, the division of his dominions into provinces, and 
to regulating precisely the amount of tribute to be re- 
quired of each, and the modes of collecting it. He 
divided his empire into twenty great districts, each of 
which was governed by a ruler called a satrap. He 
fixed the amount of tribute which each of these dis- 
tricts was to pay, making it greater or less as the 
soil and the productions of the country varied in fer- 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 107 

tility and abundance. In some cases this tribute was 
to be paid in gold, in others in silver, and in others 
in peculiar commodities, natural to the country of 
which they were required. For example, one satrapy, 
which comprised a country famous for its horses, was 
obliged to furnish one white horse for every day in 
the year. This made three hundred and sixty annu- 
ally, that being the number of days in the Persian 
year. Such a supply, furnished yearly, enabled the king 
soon to have a very large troop of white horses; and 
as the horses were beautifully caparisoned, and the 
riders magnificently armed, the body of cavalry thus 
formed was one of the most splendid in the world. 

The satrapies were numbered from the west to- 
ward the east. The western portion of Asia Minor 
constituted the first, and the East Indian nations the 
twelfth and last. The East Indians had to pay their 
tribute in ingots of gold. Their country produced 
gold. 

As it is now forever too late to separate the facts 
from the fiction of ancient history, and determine 
what is to be rejected as false and what received as 
true, our only resource is to tell the whole story just 
as it comes down to us, leaving it to each reader to 
decide for himself what he will believe. In this view 
of the subject, we will conclude this chapter by re- 
lating the manner in which it was said in ancient 
times that these Indian nations obtained their gold. 



108 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 520 

The gold country was situated in remote and 
dreary deserts, inhabited only by wild beasts and 
vermin, among which last there was, it seems, a 
species of ants, which were of enormous size, and 
wonderful fierceness and voracity, and which could 
run faster than the fleetest horse or camel. These 
ants, in making their excavations, would bring up 
from beneath the surface of the ground all the parti- 
cles of gold which came in their way, and throw 
them out around their hills. The Indians then would 
penetrate into these deserts, mounted on the fleetest 
camels that they could procure, and leading other 
camels, not so fleet, by their sides. They were pro- 
vided, also, with bags for containing the golden 
sands. When they arrived at the ant hills, they 
would dismount, and, gathering up the gold which 
the ants had discarded, would fill their bags with the 
utmost possible dispatch, and then mount their cam- 
els and ride away. The ants, in the mean time, 
would take the alarm, and begin to assemble to at- 
tack them; but as their instinct prompted them to 
wait until considerable numbers were collected before 
they commenced their attack, the Indians had time 
to fill their bags and begin their flight before their 
enemies were ready. Then commenced the chase, 
the camels running at their full speed, and the swarms 
of ants following, and gradually drawing nearer and 
nearer. At length, when nearly overtaken, the Indians 



B.C. 520] THE PROVINCES 109 

would abandon the camels that they were leading, 
and fly on, more swiftly, upon those which they rode. 
While the ants were busy in devouring the victims 
thus given up to them, the authors of all the mis- 
chief would make good their escape, and thus carry 
off their gold to a place of safety. These famous 
ants were bigger than foxes 1 




CHAPTER VI. 

The Reconnoitering of Greece. 

The reconnoitering party. — The physician Democedes. — Story of Democedes. 

— His boyhood.— Democedes at ^Egina. — At Athens. — At the court of 
Polycrates. — Democedes a captive. — He is sent to Darius. — Democedes 
is cast into prison. — His wretched condition. — Darius sprains his ankle. 

— The Egyptian physicians baffled. — Sufferings of Darius.— He sends 
for Democedes. — Democedes's denial. — He treats the sprain successfully. 

— Darius's recovery. — The golden fetters. — Democedes released. — Hon- 
ors conferred on him. — Atossa cured by Democedes. — His conditions. — 
Atossa with Darius. — She suggests the invasion of Greece. — The explor- 
ing party. — Democedes appointed guide. — Designs of Democedes.— 
Darius baffled. — The expedition sets out. — City of Sidon. — The sea voy- 
age. — The Grecian coasts examined.— Arrival at Tarentum. — Suspicions 
of the authorities. — The Persians seized. — Escape of Democedes. — Re- 
lease of the Persians. — Tumult at Crotona. — Conduct of Democedes. — 
The expedition returns.— Misfortunes. — Cillus. — Arrival at Susa.— Re- 
ception by Darius. 

The great event in the history of Darius — the 
one, in fact, on account of which it was, 
mainly, that his name and his career have 
been so widely celebrated among mankind, was an 
attempt which he made, on a very magnificent scale, 
for the invasion and conquest of Greece. Before 
commencing active operations in this grand under- 
taking, he sent a reconnoitering party to examine 
and explore the ground. This reconnoitering party 

met with a variety of extraordinary adventures in the 
(no) 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED in 

course of its progress, and the history of it will ac- 
cordingly form the subject of this chapter. 

The guide to this celebrated reconnoitering party 
was a certain Greek physician named Democedes. 
Though Democedes was called a Greek, he was, 
really, an Italian by birth. His native town was Cro- 
tona, which may be found exactly at the ball of the 
foot on the map of Italy. It was by a very singular 
series of adventures that he passed from this remote 
community in the west, over thousands of miles by land 
and sea, to Susa, Darius's capital. He began by run- 
ning away from his father while he was still a boy. 
He said that he was driven to this step by the 
intolerable strictness and cruelty of his father's 
government. This, however, is always the pre- 
text of turbulent and ungovernable young men, who 
abandon their parents and their homes when the 
favors and the protection necessary during their 
long and helpless infancy have been all received, 
and the time is beginning to arrive for making some 
return. 

Democedes was ingenious and cunning, and fond 
of roving adventure. In running away from home, 
he embarked on board a ship, as such characters gen- 
erally do at the present day, and went to sea. After 
meeting with various adventures, he established him- 
self in the island of /Egina, in the /Egean Sea, where 
he began to practice as a physician, though he had 



in DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

had no regular education in that art. In his practice 
he evinced so much medical skill, or, at least, ex- 
ercised so much adroitness in leading people to 
believe that he possessed it, as to give him very soon 
a wide and exalted reputation. The people of /Egina 
appointed him their physician, and assigned him a 
large salary for his services in attending upon the 
sick throughout the island. This was the usual prac- 
tice in those days. A town, or an island, or any 
circumscribed district of country, would appoint a 
physician as a public officer, who was to devote his 
attention, at a fixed annual salary, to any cases of 
sickness which might arise in the community, wher- 
ever his services were needed, precisely as physicians 
serve in hospitals and public institutions in modern 
times. 

Democedes remained at /Egina two years, during 
which time his celebrity increased and extended more 
and more, until, at length, he received an appoint- 
ment from the city of Athens, with the offer of a 
greatly increased salary. He accepted the appoint- 
ment, and remained in Athens one year, when he re- 
ceived still more advantageous offers from Polycrates, 
the king of Samos, whose history was given so fully 
in the last chapter, 

Democedes remained for some time in the court 
of Polycrates, where he was raised to the highest 
distinction, and loaded with many honors. He was 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 113 

a member of the household of the king, enjoyed his 
confidence in a high degree, and attended him, per- 
sonally, on all his expeditions. At last, when Poly- 
crates went to Sardis, as is related in the last chap- 
ter, to receive the treasures of Oretes, and concert 
with him the plans for their proposed campaigns, 
Democedes accompanied, him as usual; and when 
Polycrates was slain, and his attendants and followers 
were made captive by Oretes, the unfortunate phy- 
sician was among the number. By this reverse, he 
found that he had suddenly fallen from affluence, ease, 
and honor, to the condition of a neglected and 
wretched captive in the hands of a malignant and 
merciless tyrant, 

Democedes pined in his confinement for a long 
time; when, at length, Oretes himself was killed by 
the order of Darius, it might have been expected that 
the hour of his deliverance had arrived. But it was 
.not so;- his condition was, in fact, made worse, and 
not better by it; for Bagseus, the commissioner of 
Darius, instead of inquiring into the circumstances re- 
lating to the various members of Oretes's family, and 
redressing the wrongs which any of them might be 
suffering, simply seized the whole company, and 
brought them all to Darius in Susa, as trophies of his 
triumph, and tokens of the faithfulness and efficiency 
with which he had executed the work that Darius had 
committed to his charge. Thus Democedes was borne 

M. ofH.— 17— 8 



ii 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

away, in hopeless bondage, thousands of miles farther 
from his native land than before, and with very little 
prospect of being ever able to return. He arrived at 
Susa, destitute, squalid, and miserable. His language 
was foreign, his rank and his professional skill un- 
known, and all the marks which might indicate the 
refinement and delicacy of the modes of life to which 
he had been accustomed were wholly disguised by 
his present destitution and wretchedness. He was 
sent with the other captives 40 the prisons, where he 
was secured, like them, with fetters and chains, and 
was soon almost entirely forgotten. 

He might have taken some measures for making 
his character, and his past celebrity and fame as a 
physician known; but he did not dare to do this, for 
fear that Darius might learn to value his medical skill, 
and so detain him as a slave for the sake of his serv- 
ices. He thought that the chance was greater that 
some turn of fortune, or some accidental change in 
the arrangements of government might take place, by 
which he might be set at liberty, as an insignificant 
and worthless captive, whom there was no particular 
motive for detaining, than if he were transferred to 
the king's household as a slave, and his value as an 
artisan, —for medical practice was, in those days, 
simply an art,— were once known. He made no ef- 
fort, therefore, to bring his true character to light, but 
pined silently in his dungeon, in rags and wretched- 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 115 

ness, and in a mental despondency which was grad- 
ually sinking into despair. 

About this time, it happened that Darius was one 
day riding furiously in a chase, and coming upon 
some sudden danger, he attempted to leap from his 
horse. He fell and sprained his ankle. He was taken 
up by the attendants, and carried home. His physi- 
cians were immediately called to attend to the case. 
They were Egyptians. Egypt was, in fact, considered 
the great seat and center of learning and of the arts 
in those days, and no royal household was complete 
without Egyptian physicians. 

The learning and skill, however, of the Egyptians 
in Darius's court were entirely baffled by the sprain. 
They thought that the joint was dislocated, and they 
turned and twisted the foot with so much violence, 
in their attempts to restore the bones to their proper 
position, as greatly to increase the pain and the in- 
flammation. Darius spent a week in extreme and ex- 
cruciating suffering. He could not sleep day nor 
night, but tossed in continual restlessness and an- 
guish on his couch, made constantly worse instead 
of better by every effort of his physicians to relieve 
him. 

At length somebody informed him that there was 
a Greek physician among the captives that came 
from Sardis, and recommended that Darius should 
send for him. The king, in his impatience and pain, 



n6 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

was ready for any experiment which promised the 
least hope of relief, and he ordered that Democedes 
should be immediately summoned. The officers ac- 
cordingly went to the prison and brought out the as- 
tonished captive, without any notice or preparation, 
and conducted him, just as he was, ragged and 
wretched, and shackled with iron fetters upon his 
feet, into the presence of the king. The fetters which 
such captives wore were intended to allow them to 
walk, slowly, and with difficulty, while they impeded 
the movements of the feet so as effectually to prevent 
any long or rapid flight, or any escape at all from 
free pursuers. 

Democedes, when questioned by Darius, denied at 
first that he possessed any medical knowledge or 
skill. Darius was, however, not deceived by these 
protestations. It was very customary, in those days 
of royal tyranny, for those who possessed any thing 
valuable to conceal the possession of it: concealment 
was often their only protection. Darius, who was 
well aware of this tendency, did not believe the as- 
surances of Democedes, and in the irritation and 
impatience caused by his pain, he ordered the 
captive to be taken out and put to the torture, in 
order to make him confess that he was really a phy- 
sician. 

Democedes yielded without waiting to be actually 
put to the test. He acknowledged at once, for fear 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 117 

of the torture, that he had had some experience in 
medical practice, and the sprained ankle was immedi- 
ately committed to his charge. On examining the 
case, he thought that the harsh and violent operations 
which the Egyptian physicians had attempted were 
not required. He treated the inflamed and swollen 
joint in the gentlest manner. He made fomenting and 
emollient applications, which soothed the pain, sub- 
dued the inflammation, and allayed the restlessness 
and the fever. The royal sufferer became quiet and 
calm, and in a short time fell asleep. 

In a word, the king rapidly recovered; and, over- 
whelmed with gratitude toward the benefactor whose 
skill had saved him from such suffering, he ordered 
that, in place of his single pair of iron fetters, he 
should have two pairs of fetters of goldl 

It might at first be imagined that such a strange 
token of regard as this could be intended only as a 
jest and an insult; but there is no doubt that Darius 
meant it seriously as a compliment and an honor. 
He supposed that Democedes, of course, considered 
his condition of captivity as a fixed and permanent 
one; and that his fetters were not, in themselves, an 
injustice or disgrace, but the necessary and unavoid- 
able concomitant of his lot, so that the sending of 
golden fetters to a slave was very naturally, in his 
view, like presenting a golden crutch to a cripple. 
Democedes received the equivocal donation with great 



n8 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

good nature. He even ventured upon a joke on the 
subject to the convalescent king. "It seems, sire," 
said he, "that in return for my saving your limb and 
your life, you double my servitude. You have given 
me two chains instead of one." 

The ( king, who was now in a much better humor 
to be pleased than when, writhing in anguish, he had 
ordered Democedes to be put to the torture, laughed 
at this reply, and released the captive from the bonds 
entirely. He ordered him to be conducted by the 
attendants to the apartments of the palace, where 
the wives of Darius and the other ladies of the court 
resided, that they might see him and express their 
gratitude. "This is the physician," said the eunuchs, 
who introduced him, "that cured the king." The 
ladies welcomed him with the utmost cordiality, and 
loaded him with presents of gold and silver as he 
passed through their apartments. ' The king made ar- 
rangements, too, immediately, for providing him with 
a magnificent house in Susa, and established him 
there in great luxury and splendor, with costly furni- 
ture and many attendants, and all other marks of dis- 
tinction and honor. In a word, Democedes found 
himself, by means of another unexpected change of 
fortune, suddenly elevated to a height as lofty as his 
misery and degradation had been low. He was, how- 
ever, a captive still. 

The Queen Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 119 

has already been mentioned as the wife of Cambyses 
and of Smerdis the magian, was one of the wives of 
Darius. Her sister Antystone was another. A third 
was Phsedyma, the daughter of Otanes, the lady who 
had been so instrumental, in connection with Atossa, in 
the discovery of the magian imposture. It happened 
that, some time after the curing of Darius's sprain, 
Atossa herself was sick. Her malady was of such a 
nature, that for some time she kept it concealed, from 
a feeling of delicacy.* At length, terrified by the 
danger which threatened her, she sent for Democ- 
edes, and made her case known to him. He said 
that he could cure her, but she must first promise to 
grant him, if he did so, a certain favor which he 
should ask. She must promise before hand to grant 
it, whatever it might be. It was nothing, he said, 
that should in any way compromise her honor. 

Atossa agreed to these conditions, and Democedes 
undertook her case. Her malady was soon cured; 
and when she asked him what was the favor which 
he wished to demand, he replied, 

"Persuade Darius to form a plan for the invasion 
of Greece, and to send me, with a small company of 
attendants, to explore the country, and obtain for 



* It was a tumor of the breast, which became, at length, an 
open ulcer, and began to spread and enlarge in a very formidable 
manner. 



120 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

him all the necessary preliminary information. In 
this way I shall see my native land once more." 

Atossa was faithful in her promise. She availed 
herself of the first favorable opportunity, when it be- 
came her turn to visit the king, to direct his mind, 
by a dexterous conversation, toward the subject of 
the enlargement of his empire. He had vast forces 
and resources, she said, at his command, and might 
easily enter upon a career of conquest which would 
attract the admiration of the world. Darius replied 
that he had been entertaining some views of that 
nature. He had thought, he said, of attacking the 
Scythians: these Scythians were a group of semi- 
savage nations on the north of his dominions. Atossa 
represented to him that subduing the Scythians would 
be too easy a conquest, and that it would be a far 
nobler enterprise, and more worthy of his talents and 
his vast resources, to undertake an expedition into 
Europe, and attempt the conquest of Greece. You 
have all the means at your command essential for 
the success of such an undertaking, and you have in 
your court a man who can give you, or can obtain 
for you, all the necessary information in respect to 
the country, to enable you to form the plan of your 
campaigns. 

The ambition of Darius was fired by these sug- 
gestions. He began immediately to form projects and 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 121 

schemes. In a day or two he organized a small party 
of Persian officers of distinction, in whom he had 
great confidence, to go on an exploring tour into 
Greece. They were provided with a suitable company 
of attendants, and with every thing necessary for 
their journey, and Democedes was directed to prepare 
to go with them as their guide. They were to travel 
simply as a party of Persian noblemen, on an excur- 
sion of curiosity and pleasure, concealing their true 
design; and as Democedes their guide, though born 
in Italy, was in all important points a Greek, and was 
well acquainted with the countries through which 
they were to pass, they supposed that they could 
travel every where without suspicion. Darius charged 
the Persians to keep a diligent watch over Democedes, 
and not to allow him, on any account to leave them, 
but to bring him back to Susa safely with them on 
their return. 

As for Democedes, he had no intention whatever 
of returning to Persia, though he kept his designs of 
making his escape entirely concealed. Darius, with 
seeming generosity, said to him, while he was mak- 
ing his preparations, "I recommend to you to take 
with you all your private wealth and treasures, to dis- 
tribute, for presents, among your friends in Greece 
and Italy. I will bestow more upon you here on 
your return." Democedes regarded this counsel with 
great suspicion. He imagined that the king, in giving 



122 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

him this permission, wished to ascertain, by observing 
whether he would really take with him all his pos- 
sessions, the existence of any secret determination in 
his mind not to come back to Susa. If this were Da- 
rius's plan, it was defeated by the sagacious vigilance 
and cunning of the physician. He told the king, in 
reply, that he preferred to leave his effects in Persia, 
that they might be ready for his use on his return. 
The king then ordered a variety of costly articles to 
be provided and given to Democedes, to be taken 
with him and presented to his friends in Greece and 
Italy. They consisted of vessels of gold and sil- 
ver, pieces of Persian armor of beautiful workman- 
ship, and articles of dress, expensive and splendid. 
These were all carefully packed, and the various 
other necessary preparations were made for the long 
journey. 

At length the expedition set out. They traveled 
by land westward, across the continent, till they 
reached the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 
The port at which they arrived was Sidon, the city 
so often mentioned in the Scriptures as a great pagan 
emporium of commerce. The city of Sidon was in 
the height of its glory at this time, being one of the 
most important ports of the Mediterranean for all the 
western part of Asia. Caravans of travelers came to 
it by land, bringing on the backs of camels the pro- 
ductions of Arabia, Persia, and all the East; and fleets 



B.C. 519] GREECE INVADED 123 

of ships by sea, loaded with the corn, and wine, and 
oil of the Western nations. 

At Sidon the land journey of the expedition was 
ended. Here they bought two large and splendid 
ships, galleys of three banks of oars, to convey them 
to Greece. These galleys were for their own personal 
accommodation. There was a third vessel, called a 
transport, for the conveyance of their baggage, which 
consisted mainly of the packages of rich and costly 
presents which Darius had prepared. Some of these 
presents were for the friends of Democedes, as 
has been already explained, and others had been pro- 
vided as gifts and offerings from the king himself to 
such distinguished personages as the travelers might 
visit on their route. When the vessels were ready, 
and the costly cargo was on board, the company 
of travelers embarked, and the little fleet put to sea. 

The Grecian territories are endlessly divided and 
indented by the seas, whose irregular and winding 
shores form promontories, peninsulas, and islands 
without number, which are accessible in every part 
by water. The Persian explorers cruised about among 
these coasts under Democedes's guidance, examining 
every thing, and noting carefully all the information 
which they could obtain, either by personal observa- 
tion or by inquiring of others, which might be of 
service to Darius in his intended invasion. Democedes 
allowed them to take their own time, directing their 



i2 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 519 

course, however, steadily, though slowly, toward his 
own native town of Crotona. The expedition landed 
in various places, and were every where well received. 
It was not for the interest of Democedes that they 
should yet be intercepted. In fact, the name and 
power of Darius were very much feared, or, at least, 
very highly respected in all the Grecian territory, and 
the people were little inclined to molest a peaceful 
party of Persians traveling like ordinary tourists, and 
under the guidance, too, of a distinguished countryman 
of their own, whose name was, in some degree, a 
guarantee for the honesty and innocence of their inten- 
tions. At length, however, after spending some time 
in the Grecian seas, the little squadron moved still 
farther west, toward the coast of Italy, and arrived 
finally at Tarentum. Tarentum was the great port on 
the Grecian side of Italy. It was at the head of the 
spacious bay which sets up between the heel and the 
ball of the foot of the boot-shaped peninsula. Crotona, 
Democedes's native town, to which he was now 
desirous to return, was southwest of Tarentum, about 
two hundred miles along the shore. 

It was a very curious and extraordinary circum- 
stance that, though the expedition had been thus far 
allowed to go and come as its leaders pleased, with- 
out any hindrance or suspicion, yet now, the mo- 
ment that they touched a point from which Democe- 
des could easily reach his home, the authorities on 



B.C. 518] GREECE INVADED 125 

shore, in some way or other, obtained some intima- 
tion of the true character of their enterprise. The 
Prince of Tarentum seized the ships. He made the Per- 
sians themselves prisoners also, and shut them up; 
and, in order effectually to confine the ships, he took 
away the helms from them, so that they could not be 
steered, and were thus entirely disabled. The expe- 
dition being thus, for the time at least, broken up, 
Democedes said coolly, that he would take the oppor- 
tunity to make a little excursion along the coast, and 
visit his friends at Crotona! 

It was another equally suspicious circumstance in 
respect to the probability that this seizure was the 
result of Democedes's management, that, as soon as he 
was safely away, the Prince of Tarentum set his pris- 
oners at liberty, releasing at the same time, the ships 
from the seizure, and sending the helms on board. 
The Persians were indignant at the treatment which 
they had received, and set sail immediately along the 
coast toward Crotona in pursuit of Democedes. They 
found him in the market-place in Crotona, haranguing 
the people, and exciting, by his appearance and his 
discourse, a great and general curiosity. They at- 
tempted to seize him as a fugitive, and called upon 
the people of Crotona to aid them, threatening them 
with the vengeance of Darius if they refused. A part 
of the people were disposed to comply with this de- 
mand, while others rallied to defend their townsman. 



i 2 6 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 518 

A great tumult ensued; but, in the end, the party of 
Democedes was victorious. He was not only thus 
personally rescued, but, as he informed the people that 
the transport vessel which accompanied the expedi- 
tion contained property that belonged to him, they 
seized that too, and gave it up to Democedes, saying 
to the Persians that, though they must give up the 
transport, the galleys remained at their service to con- 
vey them back to their own country whenever they 
wished to go. 

The Persians had now no other alternative but to 
return home. They had, it is true, pretty nearly ac- 
complished the object of their undertaking; but, if 
any thing remained to be done, they could not now 
attempt it with any advantage, as they had lost their 
guide and a great portion of the effects which had 
been provided by Darius to enable them to propitiate 
the favor of the princes and potentates into whose 
power they might fall. They accordingly began to 
make preparations for sailing back again to Sidon, 
while Democedes established himself in great magnif- 
icence and splendor in Crotona. When, at length, 
the Persians were ready to sail, Democedes wished 
them a very pleasant voyage and desired them to give 
his best respects to Darius, and inform him that he 
could not return at present to Persia, as he was mak- 
ing arrangements to be married! 

The disasters which had befallen these Persian rec- 



B.C. 518] GREECE INVADED ' 127 

onnoiterers thus far were only the beginning of their 
troubles. Their ships were driven by contrary winds 
out of their course, and they were thrown at last up- 
on the coast of Iapygia, a country occupying the heel 
of Italy. Here they were seized by the inhabitants 
and made slaves. It happened that there was living 
in this wild country at that time a man of wealth 
and of cultivation, who had been exiled from Tarentum 
on account of some political offenses. His name was 
Cillus. He heard the story of these unhappy foreigners, 
and interested himself in their fate. He thought that, 
by rescuing them from their captivity and sending 
them home, he should make Darius his friend, and 
secure, perhaps, his aid in effecting his own restora- 
tion to his native land. He accordingly paid the ran- 
som which was demanded for the captives, and set 
them free. He then aided them in making arrange- 
ments for their return to Persia, and the unfortunate 
messengers found their way back at last to the 
court of Darius, without their guide, without any of 
the splendid appointments with which they had gone 
forth, but stripped of every thing, and glad to escape 
with their lives. 

They had some cause to fear, too, the anger of 
Darius, for the insensate wrath of a tyrant is awak- 
ened as often by calamity as by crime. Darius, how- 
ever, was in this instance graciously disposed. He 
received the unfortunate commissioners in a favorable 



128 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 518 

manner. He took immediate measures for rewarding 
Cillus for having ransomed them. He treasured up, 
too, the information which they had obtained respect- 
ing Greece, though he was prevented by circum- 
stances, which we will proceed to describe, from 
immediately putting into execution his plans of in- 
vasion and conquest there. 




CHAPTER VII. 
The Revolt of Babylon. 

City of Babylon.— The captive Jews.— Wickedness of the Babylonians.— 
Causes of discontent. — Preparations of the Babylonians for revolt. — 
Their secrecy. — Time chosen for revolt. — Story of Syloson. — Syloson's 
red cloak. — He gives it to Darius. — Syloson goes to Susa. — Interview 
with Darius. — Request of Syloson. — Darius grants it.— Citadel of Samos. 

— Measures of Mseandrius. — Hypocrisy of Mseandrius. — His brother 
Charilaus. — Reproaches of Charilaus. — Character of Mseandrius. — At- 
tack of Charilaus.— Slaughter of the Samians.— Revolt of Babylon. — 
Insults and jeers of the Babylonians. — Ancient mode of warfare. — 
Modern warfare. — Taunt of the Babylonians. — Fabricating prodigies. 

— The mule of Zopyrus. — Interview with Darius. — Desperate plan of 
Zopyrus. — He mutilates himself. — Darius's astonishment. — Final ar- 
rangements. — Preliminary arrangements. — Zopyrus leaves the Persian 
camp. — Success of Zopyrus's stratagem. — His piteous story.— The three 
victories. — Zopyrus intrusted with power in Babylon.— Zopyrus admits 
the Persians. — Fall of Babylon. 

The city of Babylon, originally the capital of the 
Assyrian empire, was conquered by Cyrus, 
the founder of the Persian monarchy, when 
he annexed the Assyrian empire to his dominions. It 
was a vast and a very magnificent and wealthy city; 
and Cyrus made it, for a time, one of his capitals. 

When Cyrus made this conquest of Babylon, he 
found the Jews in captivity there. They had been 

made captive by Nebuchadnezzar, a previous king of 
m. of h.— 17-9 ('29) 



i 3 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 516 

Babylon, as is related in the Scriptures. The holy 
prophets of Judea had predicted that after seventy 
years the captives should return, and that Babylon it- 
self should afterward be destroyed. The first predic- 
tion was fulfilled by the victory of Cyrus. It devolved 
on Darius to execute the second of these solemn and 
retributive decrees of Heaven. 

Although Darius was thus the instrument of divine 
Providence in the destruction of Babylon, he was un- 
intentionally and unconsciously so. In the terrible 
scenes connected with the siege and the storming of 
the ill-fated city, it was the impulse of his own hatred 
and revenge that he was directly obeying; he was 
not at all aware that he was, at the same time, the 
messenger of the divine displeasure. The wretched 
Babylonians, in the storming and destruction of their 
city, were expiating a double criminality. Their pride, 
their wickedness, their wanton cruelty toward the 
Jews, had brought upon them the condemnation of 
God, while their political treason and rebellion, or, at 
least, what was considered treason and rebellion 
aroused the implacable resentment of their king. 

The Babylonians had been disposed to revolt even 
in the days of Cyrus. They had been accustomed to 
consider their city as the most noble and magnificent 
capital in the world, and they were displeased that 
Cyrus did not make it the seat and center of his em- 
pire. Cyrus preferred Susa ; and Babylon, accordingly, 



B.C. 516] REVOLT OF BABYLON 131 

though he called it one of his capitals, soon fell to 
the rank of a provincial city. The nobles and pro- 
vincial leaders that remained there began accordingly 
to form plans for revolting from the Persian dominion, 
with a view of restoring their city to its ancient po- 
sition and renown. 

They had a very favorable opportunity for matur- 
ing their plans, and making their preparations for the 
execution of them during the time of the magian 
usurpation; for while the false Smerdis was on the 
throne, being shut up and concealed in his palace at 
Susa, the affairs at the provinces were neglected; and 
when Darius and his accomplices discovered the im- 
posture and put Smerdis to death, there was neces- 
sarily required, after so violent a revolution, a con- 
siderable time before the affairs of the empire 
demanding attention at the capital could be settled, 
so as to allow the government to turn their thoughts 
at all toward the distant dependencies. The Babylo- 
nians availed themselves of all these opportunities to 
put their city in the best condition for resisting the 
Persian power. They strengthened their defenses, and 
accumulated great stores of provisions, and took 
measures for diminishing that part of the population 
which would be useless in war. These measures 
were all concerted and carried into effect in the most 
covert and secret manner; and the tidings came at 
last to Susa that Babylon had openly revolted, before 



i 3 2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 516 

the government of Darius was aware even of the ex- 
istence of any disaffection. 

The time which the Babylonians chose for their 
rebellion at last was one when the movable forces 
which Darius had at command were at the west, en- 
gaged in a campaign on the shores of Asia Minor. 
Darius had sent them there for the purpose of restor- 
ing a certain exile and wanderer named Syloson to 
Samos, and making him the monarch of it. Darius 
had been induced thus to interpose in Syloson's be- 
half by the following very extraordinary circumstances. 

Syloson was the brother of Polycrates, whose un- 
happy history has already been given. He was ex- 
iled from Samos some time before Darius ascended 
the throne, and he became, consequently, a sort of 
soldier of fortune, serving, like other such adventur- 
ers, wherever there was the greatest prospect of glory 
and pay. In this capacity he followed the army of 
Cambyses into Egypt in the memorable campaign 
described in the first chapter of this volume. It hap- 
pened, also, that Darius himself, who was then a 
young noble in the Persian court, and yet of no par- 
ticular distinction, as there was then no reason to 
imagine that he would ever be elevated to the 
throne, was also in Cambyses's army, and the two 
young men became acquainted with one another 
there. 

While the army was at Memphis, an incident oc- 



B.C. 516] REVOLT OF BABYLON 133 

curred in which these two personages were actors, 

which, though it seemed unimportant at the time, 

led, in the end, to vast and momentous results. The 
incident was this: 

Syloson had a very handsome red cloak, which, 
as he appeared in it one day, walking in the great 
square at Memphis, strongly attracted the admiration 
of Darius. Darius asked Syloson if he would sell him 
the cloak. Syloson said that he would not sell it, 
but would give it to him. He thought, probably, 
that Darius would decline receiving it as a present. 
If he did entertain that idea, it seems he was mis- 
taken. Darius praised him for his generosity, and ac- 
cepted the gift. 

Syloson was then sorry that he had made so in- 
considerate an offer, and regretted very much the loss 
of his cloak. In process of time, the campaign of 
Cambyses in Egypt was ended, and Darius returned 
to Persia, leaving Syloson in the west. At length the 
conspiracy was formed for dethroning Smerdis the 
magian, as has already been described, and Darius 
was designated to reign in his stead. As the news 
of the young noble's elevation spread into the West- 
ern world, it reached Syloson. He was much pleased 
at receiving the intelligence, and he saw immediately 
that there was a prospect of his being able to derive 



134 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 516 

some advantage, himself, from the accession of his 
old fellow-soldier to the throne. 

He immediately proceeded to Susa. He applied at 
the gates of the palace for admission to the presence 
of the king. The porter asked him who he was. He 
replied that he was a Greek who had formerly done 
Darius a service, and he wished to see him. The porter 
carried the message to the king. The king could not 
imagine who the stranger should be. He endeavored 
in vain to recall to mind any instance in which he 
had received a favor from a Greek. At length he or- 
dered the attendant to call the visitor in. 

Syloson was accordingly conducted into the king's 
presence. Darius looked upon him, but did not know 
him. He directed the interpreters to inquire what the 
service was which he had rendered the king, and 
when he had rendered it. The Greek replied by re- 
lating the circumstance of the cloak. Darius recol- 
lected the cloak, though he had forgotten the giver. 
"Are you, indeed," said he, "the man who made 
me that present ? I thought then that you were very 
generous to me, and you shall see that I do not un- 
dervalue the obligation now. I am at length, fortu- 
nately, in a situation to requite the favor, and I will 
give you such an abundance of gold and silver as 
shall effectually prevent your being sorry for having 
shown a kindness to Darius Hystaspes." 

Syloson thanked the king in reply, but said that 



B.C. 516] REVOLT OF BABYLON 135 

he did not wish for gold and silver. Darius asked 
him what reward he did desire. He replied that he 
wished Samos to be restored to him: "Samos," said 
he, "was the possession of my brother. When he 
went away from the island, he left it temporarily in 
the hands of Maeandrius, an officer of his household. 
It still remains in the possession of this family, while 
I, the rightful heir, am a homeless wanderer and ex- 
ile, excluded from my brother's dominions by one of 
his slaves." 

Darius immediately determined to accede to Sylo- 
son's request. He raised an army and put it under 
the command of Otanes, who, it will be recollected, 
was one of the seven conspirators that combined to 
dethrone Smerdis the magian. He directed Otanes to 
accompany Syloson to Samos, and to put him in pos- 
session of the island. Syloson was particularly earnest 
in his request that no unnecessary violence should be 
used, and no blood shed, or vindictive measures of 
any kind adopted. Darius promised to comply with 
these desires, and gave his orders to Otanes accord- 
ingly. 

Notwithstanding this, however, the expedition re- 
sulted in the almost total destruction of the Samian 
population, in the following manner. There was a 
citadel at Samos, to which the inhabitants retired 
when they learned that Otanes had embarked his 
troops in ships on the coast, and was advancing to- 



136 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 516 

ward the island. Maeandrius was vexed and angry at 
the prospect of being deprived of his possessions and 
his power; and, as the people hated him on account 
of his extortion and tyranny, he hated them in return, 
and cared not how much suffering his measures might 
be the means of bringing upon them. He had a sub- 
terranean and secret passage from the citadel to the 
shore of the sea, where, in a secluded cove, were 
boats or vessels ready to take him away. Having 
made these arrangements to secure his own safety, 
he proceeded to take such a course and adopt such 
measures as should tend most effectually to exasper- 
ate and offend the Persians, intending to escape, him- 
self, at the last moment, by this subterranean retreat, 
and to leave the inhabitants of the island at the 
mercy of their infuriated enemies. 

He had a brother whom he had shut up in a dun- 
geon, and whose mind, naturally depraved, and irri- 
tated by his injuries, was in a state of malignant and 
furious despair. Maeandrius had pretended to be will- 
ing to give up the island to the Persians. He had 
entered into negotiations with them for this purpose, 
and the Persians considered the .treaty as in fact 
concluded. The leaders and officers of the army had 
assembled, accordingly, before the citadel in a peace- 
ful attitude, waiting merely for the completion of the 
forms of surrender, when Charilaus, Maeandrius's cap- 
tive brother, saw them, by looking out between the 



B.C. 516] REVOLT OF BABYLON 137 

bars of his window, in the tower in which he was 
confined. He sent an urgent message to Maeandrius, 
requesting to speak to him. Maeandrius ordered the 
prisoner to be brought before him. The haggard and 
wretched-looking captive, rendered half insane by the 
combined influence of the confinement he had en- 
dured, and of the wild excitement produced by the 
universal panic and confusion which reigned around 
him, broke forth against his brother in the boldest 
and most violent invectives. He reproached him in 
the most bitter terms for being willing to yield so in- 
gloriously, and without a struggle, to an invading foe, 
whom he might easily repel. "You have courage 
and energy enough, it seems," said he, "to make war 
upon an innocent and defenseless brother, and to keep 
him for years in chains and in a dungeon, but when 
an actual enemy appears, though he comes to despoil 
you of all your possessions, and to send you into 
hopeless exile, and though, if you had the ordinary 
courage and spirit of a man, you could easily drive 
him away, yet you dare not face him. If you are too 
cowardly and mean to do youi duty yourself, give me 
your soldiers, and I will do it for you. 1 will drive 
these Persians back into the sea with as much pleas- 
ure as it would give me to drive you there 1" 

Such a nature as that of Maeandrius can not be 
stung into a proper sense of duty by reproaches like 
these, There seem to have been in his heart no 



138 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 516 

moral sensibilities of any kind, and there could be, of 
course, no compunctions for the past, and no awak- 
ening of new and better desires for the future. All 
the effect which was produced upon his mind by 
these bitter denunciations was to convince him that 
to comply with his brother's request would be to do 
the best thing now in his power for widening, and 
extending, and making sure the misery and mischief 
which were impending. He placed his troops, there- 
fore, under his brother's orders; and while the in- 
furiated madman sallied forth at the head of them to 
attack the astonished Persians on one side of the cit- 
adel, Maeandrius made his escape through the under- 
ground passage on the other. The Persians were so 
exasperated at what appeared to them the basest 
treachery, that, as soon as they could recover their 
arms and get once more into battle array, they com- 
menced a universal slaughter of the Samians. They 
spared neither age, sex, nor condition; and when, at 
last, their vengeance was satisfied, and they put the 
island into Syloson's hands, and withdrew, he found 
himself in possession of an almost absolute solitude. 
It was while Otanes was absent on this enterprise, 
having with him a large part of the disposable forces 
of the king, that the Babylonians revolted. Darius 
was greatly incensed at hearing the tidings. Sov- 
ereigns are always greatly incensed at a revolt on the 
part of their subjects. The circumstances of the case, 



B.C. 514] REVOLT OF BABYLON 139 

whatever they may be, always seem to them to con- 
stitute a peculiar aggravation of the offense. Darius 
was indignant that the Babylonians had attempted to 
take advantage of his weakness, by rebelling when 
his armies were away. If they had risen when his 
armies were around him, he would have been equally 
indignant with them for having dared to brave his 
power. 

He assembled all the forces at his disposal, and 
advanced to Babylon. The people of the city shut 
their gates against him, and derided him. They 
danced and capered on the walls, making all sorts of 
gestures expressive of contempt and defiance, accom- 
panied with shouts and outcries of ridicule and scorn. 
They had great confidence in the strength of their 
defenses, and then, besides this, they probably re- 
garded Darius as a sort of usurper, who had no legit- 
imate title to the throne, and who would never be 
able to subdue any serious resistance which might be 
offered to the establishment of his power. It was 
from these considerations that they were emboldened 
to be guilty of the folly of taunting and insulting 
their foes from the city walls. 

Such incidents as this, of personal communications 
between masses of enemies on the eve of a battle, 
were very common in ancient warfare, though im- 
possible in modern times. In those days, when the 
missiles employed were thrown chiefly by the strength 



i 4 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 514 

of the human arm alone, the combatants could safely 
draw near enough together for each side to hear 
the voices and to see the gesticulations of the other. 
Besiegers could advance sufficiently close to a castle 
or citadel to parley insultingly with the garrison upon 
the walls, and yet be safe from the showers of darts 
and arrows which were projected toward them in 
return. But all this is now changed. The range of 
cannon, and even of musketry, is so long, that com- 
batants, approaching a conflict, are kept at a very 
respectful distance apart, until the time arrives in 
which the actual engagement is to begin. They rec- 
onnoiter each other with spy-glasses from watch- 
towers on the walls, or from eminences in the field, 
but they can hold no communication except by a 
formal embassy, protected by a flag of truce, which, 
with its white and distant fluttering, as it slowly ad- 
vances over the green fields, warns the gunners at 
the battery or on the bastion to point their artillery 
another way. 

The Babylonians, on the walls of their city, re- 
proached and taunted their foes incessantly. "Take 
our advice," said they, "and go back where you 
came from. You will only lose your time in besieg- 
ing Babylon. When mules have foals, you will take 
the city, and not till then." 

The expression "when mules have foals" was 
equivalent in those days to our proverbial phrase, 



B.C. 514] REVOLT OF BABYLON 141 

" when the sky falls," being used to denote any 
thing impossible or absurd, inasmuch as mules, like 
other hybrid animals, do not produce young. It was 
thought in those times absolutely impossible that 
they should do so; but it is now well known that 
the case is not impossible, though very rare. 

It seems to have added very much to the interest 
of an historical narrative in the minds of the ancient 
Greeks, to have some prodigy connected with every 
great event; and, in order to gratify this feeling, the 
writers appear in some instances to have fabricated a 
prodigy for the occasion, and in others to have ele- 
vated some unusual, though by no means super- 
natural circumstance, to the rank and importance of 
one. The prodigy connected with this siege of Bab- 
ylon was the foaling of a mule. The mule belonged 
to a general in the army of Darius, named Zopyrus. 
It was after Darius had been prosecuting the siege of 
the city for a year and a half, without any progress 
whatever toward the accomplishment of his end. 
The army began to despair of success. Zopyrus, 
with the rest, was expecting that the siege would be 
indefinitely prolonged, or, perhaps, absolutely aban- 
doned, when his attention was strongly attracted to 
the phenomenon which had happened in respect to 
the mule. He remembered the taunt of the Bab- 
ylonian on the wall, and it seemed to him that the 
whole occurrence portended that the time had now 



i 4 2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 514 

arrived when some way might be devised for the 
capture of the city. 

Portents and prophecies are often the causes of 
their own fulfillment and this portent led Zopyrus 
to endeavor to devise some means to accomplish the 
end in view. He went first, however, to Darius, to 
converse with him upon the subject, with a view of 
ascertaining how far he was really desirous of bring- 
ing the siege to a termination. He wished to know 
whether the object was of sufficient importance in 
Darius's mind to warrant any great sacrifice on his 
own part to effect it. 

He found that it was so. Darius was extremely 
impatient to end the siege and to capture the city; 
and Zopyrus saw at once that, if he could in any 
way be the means of accomplishing the work, he 
should entitle himself in the highest possible degree, 
to the gratitude of the king. 

He determined to go himself into Babylon as a 
pretended deserter from Darius, with a view to ob- 
taining an influence and a command within the city, 
which should enable him afterward to deliver it up to 
the besiegers; and, in order to convince the Babyloni- 
ans that his desertion was real, he resolved to muti- 
late himself in a manner so dreadful as would effec- 
tually prevent their imagining that the injuries which 
he suffered were inflicted by any contrivance of his 
own. He accordingly cut off his hair and his ears, 



B.C. 514] REVOLT OF BABYLON 143 

and mutilated his face in a manner too shocking to 
be here detailed, inflicting injuries which could never 
be repaired. He caused himself to be scourged, also, 
until his whole body was covered with cuts and con- 
tusions. He then went, wounded and bleeding as he 
was, into the presence of Darius, to make known his 
plans. 

Darius expressed amazement and consternation at 
the terrible spectacle. He leaped from his throne and 
rushed toward Zopyrus, demanding who had dared 
to maltreat one of his generals in such a manner. 
When Zopyrus replied that he had himself done the 
deed, the king's astonishment was greater than be- 
fore. He told Zopyrus that he was insane. Some 
sudden paroxysm of madness had come over him. 
Zopyrus replied that he was not insane; and he ex- 
plained his design. His plan, he said, was deliber- 
ately and calmly formed, and it should be steadily 
and faithfully executed. "I did not make known 
my design to you," said he, "before I had taken the 
preliminary steps, for I knew that you would prevent 
my taking them. It is now too late for that, and 
nothing remains but to reap, if possible, the advan- 
tage which may be derived from what I have done." 

He then arranged with Darius the plans which he 
had formed, so far as he needed the co-operation of 
the king in the execution of them. If he could gain 
a partial command in the Babylonian army, he was 



i 4 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 514 

to make a sally from the city gates on' a certain day, 
and attack a portion of the Persian army, which Da- 
rius was to leave purposely exposed, in order that he 
might gain credit with the Babylonians by destroying 
them. From this he supposed that the confidence 
which the Babylonians would repose in him would 
increase, and he might consequently receive a greater 
command. Thus he might, by acting in concert with 
Darius without, gradually gain such an ascendency 
within the city as finally to have power to open the 
gates and let the besiegers in. Darius was to station 
a detachment of a thousand men near a certain gate, 
leaving them imperfectly armed, on the tenth day 
after Zopyrus entered the city. These Zopyrus was 
to destroy. Seven days afterward, two thousand 
more were to be stationed in a similar manner at an- 
other point; and these were also to be destroyed by 
a second sally. Twenty days after this, four thou- 
sand more were to be similarly exposed. Thus seven 
thousand innocent and defenseless men would be 
slaughtered, but that, as Zopyrus said, would be "of 
no consequence." The lives of men were estimated 
by heroes and conquerors in those days only at their 
numerical value in swelling the army roll. 

These things being all arranged, Zopyrus took 
leave of the king to go to Babylon. As he left the 
Persian camp, he began to run, looking round behind 
him continually, as if in flight. Some men, too, pre- 



B.C. 514] REVOLT OF BABYLON 145 

tended to pursue him. He fled toward one of the 
gates of the city. The sentinels on the walls saw 
him coming. When he reached the gate, the porter 
inside of it talked with him through a small opening, 
and heard his story. The porter then reported the 
case to the superior officers, and they commanded 
that the fugitive should be admitted. When con- 
ducted into the presence of the magistrates, he related 
a piteous story of the cruel treatment which he had 
received from Darius, and of the difficulty which he 
had experienced in making his escape from the 
tyrant's hands. He uttered, too, dreadful imprecations 
against Darius, and expressed the most eager deter- 
mination to be revenged. He informed the Babyloni- 
ans, moreover, that he was well acquainted with all 
Darius's plans and designs, and with the disposition 
which he had made of his army; and that, if they 
would, in a few days, when his wounds should have 
in some measure healed, give him a small command, 
he would show them, by actual trial, what he could 
do to aid their cause. 

They acceded to this proposition, and furnished 
Zopyrus, at the end of ten days, with a moderate 
force. Zopyrus, at the head of this force, sallied forth 
from the gate which had been previously agreed 
upon between him and Darius, and fell upon the un- 
fortunate thousand that had been stationed there for 
the purpose of being destroyed. They were nearly 

M. of H.— 17— 10 



146 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 514 

defenseless, and Zopyrus, though his force was in- 
ferior, cut them all to pieces before they could be 
re-enforced or protected, and then retreated safely 
into the city again. He was received by the Baby- 
lonians with the utmost exultation and joy. He had 
no difficulty in obtaining, seven days afterward, the 
command of a larger force, when, sallying forth from 
another gate, as had been agreed upon by Darius, he 
gained another victory, destroying, on this occasion, 
twice as many Persians as before. These exploits 
gained the pretended deserter unbounded fame and 
honor within the city. The populace applauded him 
with continual acclamations; and the magistrates in- 
vited him to their councils, offered him high com- 
mand, and governed their own plans and measures 
by his advice. At length, on the twentieth day, he 
made his third sally, at which time he destroyed and 
captured a still greater number than before. This 
gave him such an influence and position within the 
city, in respect to its defense, that he had no diffi- 
culty in getting intrusted with the keys of certain 
gates, — those, namely, by which he had agreed that 
the army of Darius should be admitted. 

When the time arrived, the Persians advanced to 
the attack of the city in that quarter, and the Baby- 
lonians rallied as usual on the walls to repel them. 
The contest had scarcely begun before they found 
that the gates were open, and that the columns of 



B.C. 514] REVOLT OF BABYLON 147 

the enemy were pouring in. The city was thus soon 
wholly at the mercy of the conqueror. Darius dis- 
mantled the walls, carried off the brazen gates, and 
crucified three thousand of the most distinguished in- 
habitants; then establishing over the rest a govern- 
ment of his own, he withdrew his troops and returned 
to Susa. He bestowed upon Zopyrus, at Susa, all 
possible rewards and honors. The marks of his 
wounds and mutilations could never be effaced, but 
Darius often said that he would gladly give up twenty 
Babylons to be able to efface them. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

The Invasion of Scythia. 

Darius's authority fully established throughout his dominions.— The Scyth- 
ians. — Ancient account of them. — Pictures of savage life. — Their divei- 
sity. — Social instincts of man. — Their universality. — Moral sentiments of 
mankind. — Religious depravity. — Advice of Artabanus. — Emissaries 
sent forward. — The petition of GEJbazus. — Darius's wanton cruelty. — 
Place of, rendezvous. — The fleet of galleys. — Darius's march through 
Asia Minor. — Monuments. — Arrival at the Bosporus. — The bridge of 
boats. — Reward of Mandrocles. — The group of statuary. — The Cyaneau 
Islands. — Darius makes an excursion to them. — The two monuments. — 
Inscriptions on them. — The troops cross the bridge. — Movements of the 
fleet. — The River Tearus. — Its wonderful sources. — The cairn. — Primi- 
tive mode of census-taking. — Instinctive feeling of dependence on a 
supernatural power. — Strange religious observance. — Arrival at the 
Danube. — Orders to destroy the bridge. — Counsel of the Grecian gen- 
eral. — The bridge is preserved. — Guard left to protect it. — Singular 
mode of reckoning. — Probable reason for employing it. — Darius's deter- 
mination to return before the knots should be all untied. 

IN the reigns of ancient monarchs and conquerors, 
it often happened that the first great transaction 
which called forth their energies was the sup- 
pression of a rebellion within their dominions, and the 
second, an expedition against some ferocious and half- 
savage nations beyond their frontiers. Darius followed 
this general example. The suppression of the Baby- 
lonian revolt established his authority throughout the 
whole interior of his empire. If that vast, and popu- 
lous, and wealthy city was found unable to resist his 
(•48) 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 149 

power, no other smaller province or capital could hope 
to succeed in the attempt. The whole empire of 
Asia, therefore, from the capital at Susa, out to the 
extreme limits and bounds to which Cyrus had ex- 
tended it, yielded without any further opposition to 
his sway. He felt strong in his position, and being 
young and ardent in temperament, he experienced a 
desire to exercise his strength. For some reason or 
other, he seems to have been not quite prepared yet 
to grapple with the Greeks, and he concluded, ac- 
cordingly, first to test his powers in respect to foreign 
invasion by a war upon the Scythians. This was an 
undertaking which required some courage and resolu- 
tion; for it was while making an incursion into the 
country of the Scythians that Cyrus, his renowned 
predecessor, and the founder of the Persian empire, 
had fallen. 

The term Scythians seems to have been a generic 
designation, applied indiscriminately to vast hordes of 
half-savage tribes occupying those wild and inhospi- 
table regions of the north, that extended along the shores 
of the Black and the Caspian Seas, and the banks of 
the Danube. The accounts which are given by the 
ancient historians of the manners and customs of 
these people, are very inconsistent and contradictory; 
as, in fact, the accounts of the characters of savages, 
and of the habits and usages of savage life, have 
always been in every age. It is very little that any 



150 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

one cultivated observer can really know, in respect to 
the pha'ses of character, the thoughts and feelings, the 
sentiments, the principles and the faith, and even the 
modes of life, that prevail among uncivilized aborig- 
ines living in forests, or roaming wildly over unin- 
closed and trackless plains. Of those who have the 
opportunity to observe them, accordingly, some extol, 
in the highest degree, their rude but charming sim- 
plicity, their truth and faithfulness, the strength of 
their filial and conjugal affection, and their superiority 
of spirit in rising above the sordid sentiments and 
gross vices of civilization. They are not the slaves, 
these writers say, of appetite and passion. They 
have no inordinate love of gain; they are patient in 
enduring suffering, grateful for kindness received, and 
inflexibly firm in their adherence to the principles of 
honor and duty. Others, on the other hand, see in 
savage life nothing but treachery, cruelty, brutality, 
and crime.. Man in his native state, as they imagine, 
is but a beast, with just intelligence enough to give 
effect to his depravity. Without natural affection, 
without truth, without a sense of justice, or the means 
of making law a substitute for it, he lives in a scene 
of continual conflict, in which the rights of the weak 
and the defenseless are always overborne by brutal 
and tyrannical power. 

The explanation of this diversity is doubtless this, 
that in savage life, as well as in every other state of 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 151 

human society, all the varieties of human conduct and 
character are exhibited; and the attention of each ob- 
server is attracted to the one or to the other class of 
phenomena, according to the circumstances in which 
he is placed when he makes his observations, or the 
mood of mind which prevails within him when he 
records them. There must be the usual virtues of 
social life, existing in a greater or less degree, in all 
human communities; for such principles as a knowl- 
edge of the distinction of right and wrong, the idea 
of property and of individual rights, the obligation 
resting on every one to respect them, the sense of 
justice, and of the ill desert of violence and cruelty, 
are all universal instincts of the human soul, as uni- 
versal and as essential to humanity as maternal or filial 
affection, or the principle of conjugal love. They were 
established by the great Author of nature as constituent 
elements in the formation of man. Man could not 
continue to exist, as a gregarious animal, without 
them. It would accordingly be as impossible to find 
a community of men without these moral sentiments 
generally prevalent among them, as to find vultures 
or tigers that did not like to pursue and take their 
prey, or deer without a propensity to fly from dan- 
ger. The laws and usages of civilized society are the 
expression and the result of these sentiments, not the 
origin and foundation of them; and violence, cruelty, 
and crime are the exceptions to their operation, very 



152 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

few, in all communities, savage or civilized, in com- 
parison with the vast preponderance of cases in which 
they are obeyed. 

This view of the native constitution of the human 
character, which it is obvious, on very slight reflec- 
tion, must be true, is not at all opposed, as it might 
at first appear to be, by the doctrine of the theo- 
logical writers in the Christian Church in respect to 
the native depravity of man; for the depravity here 
referred to is a religious depravity, an alienation of 
the heart from God, and a rebellious and insubmissive 
spirit in respect to his law. Neither the Scriptures 
nor the theological writers who interpret them ever 
call in question the universal existence and prevalence 
of those instincts that are essential to the social wel- 
fare of man. 

But we must return to the Scythians. 

The tribes which Darius proposed to attack oc- 
cupied the countries north of the Danube. His route, 
therefore, for the invasion of their territories would 
lead him through Asia Minor, thence across the 
Hellespont or the Bosporus into Thrace, and from 
Thrace across the Danube. It was a distant and 
dangerous expedition. 

Darius had a brother named Artabanus. Artabanus 
was of the opinion that the enterprise which the king 
was contemplating was not only distant and danger- 
ous, but that the country of the Scythians was of so 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 153 

little value that the end to be obtained by success 
would be wholly inadequate to compensate for the 
exertions, the costs, and the hazards which he must 
necessarily incur in the prosecution of it. But Darius 
was not to be dissuaded. He thanked his brother for 
his advice, but ordered the preparations for the ex- 
pedition to go on. 

He sent emissaries forward, in advance, over the 
route that his army was destined to take, transmitting 
orders to the several provinces which were situated 
on the line of his march to prepare the way for the 
passage of his troops. Among other preparations, 
they were to construct a bridge of boats across the 
Bosporus at Chalcedon. This work was intrusted 
to the charge and superintendence of an engineer 
of Samos named Mandrocles. The people of the 
provinces were also to furnish bodies of troops, 
both infantry and cavalry, to join the army on its 
march. 

The soldiers that were enlisted to go on this re- 
mote and dangerous expedition joined the army, as 
is usual in such cases, some willingly, from love of 
adventure, or the hope of opportunities for plunder, 
and for that unbridled indulgence of appetite and pas- 
sion which soldiers so often look forward to as a 
part of their reward; others from hard compulsion, 
being required to leave friends and home, and all that 
they held dear, under the terror of a stern and des- 



154 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

potic edict which they dared not disobey. It was 
even dangerous to ask for exemption. 

As an instance of this, it is said that there was a 
Persian named CEbazus, who had three sons that had 
been drafted into the army. CEbazus, desirous of not 
being left wholly alone in his old age, made a re- 
quest to the king that he would allow one of the 
sons to remain at home with his father. Darius ap- 
peared to receive this petition favorably. He told 
CEbazus that the request was so very modest and 
considerate that he would grant more than he asked. 
He would allow all three of his sons to remain with 
him. CEbazus retired from the king's presence over- 
joyed at the thought that his family was not to be 
separated at all. Darius ordered his guards to kill the 
three young men, and to send the dead bodies home, 
with a message to their father that his sons were re- 
stored to him, released forever from all obligation to 
serve the king. 

The place of general rendezvous for the various 
forces which were to join in the expedition, consist- 
ing of the army which marched with Darius from 
Susa, and also of the troops and ships which the 
maritime provinces of Asia Minor were to supply on 
the way, was on the shores of the Bosporus, at the 
point where Mandrocles had constructed the bridge. 
The people of Ionia, a region situated in Asia Minor, 
on the shores of the /Egean Sea, had been ordered 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 155 

to furnish a fleet of galleys, which they were to build 
and equip, and then send to the bridge. The destina- 
tion of this fleet was the Danube. It was to pass 
up the Bosporus into the Euxine Sea, now called the 
Black Sea, and thence into the mouth of the river. 
After ascending the Danube to a certain point, the 
men were to land and build a bridge across that river, 
using, very probably, their galleys for this purpose. 
In the mean time, the army was to cross the Bos- 
porus by the bridge which had been erected there by 
Mandrocles, and pursue their way toward the Danube 
by land, through the kingdom of Thrace. By this 
arrangement, it was supposed that the bridge across 
the Danube would be ready by the time that the 
main body of the army arrived on the banks of the 
river. The idea of thus building in Asia Minor a 
bridge for the Danube, in the form of a vast fleet of 
galleys, to be sent round through the Black Sea to 
the mouths of the river, and thence up the river to 
its place of destination, was original and grand. It 
strikingly marks the military genius and skill which 
gave the Greeks so extended a fame, for it was by 
the Greeks that the exploit was to be performed. 

Darius marched magnificently through Asia Minor, 
on his way to the Bosporus, at the head of an army 
of seventy thousand men. He moved slowly, and the 
engineers and architects that accompanied him built 
columns and monuments here and there, as he ad- 



156 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

vanced, to commemorate his progress. These struc- 
tures were covered with inscriptions, which ascribed 
to Darius, as the leader of the enterprise, the most 
extravagant praise. At length the splendid array ar- 
rived at the place of rendezvous on the Bosporus, where 
there was soon presented to view a very grand and 
imposing scene. 

The bridge of boats was completed, and the Ionian 
fleet, consisting of six hundred galleys, was at anchor 
near it in the stream. Long lines of tents were 
pitched upon the shore, and thousands of horsemen 
and of foot soldiers were drawn up in array, their 
banners flying, and their armor glittering in the sun, 
and all eager to see and to welcome the illustrious 
sovereign who had come, with so much pomp and 
splendor, to take them under his command. The 
banks of the Bosporus were picturesque and high, 
and all the eminences were crowded with spectators, 
to witness the imposing magnificence of the spec- 
tacle. 

Darius encamped his army on the shore, and began 
to make the preparations necessary for the final de- 
parture of the expedition. He had been thus far 
within his own dominions. He was now, however, 
to pass into another quarter of the globe, to plunge 
into new and unknown dangers, among hostile, 
savage, and ferocious tribes. It was right that he 
should pause until he had considered well his plans, 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 157 

and secured attention to every point which could in- 
fluence success. 

He first examined the bridge of boats. He was 
very much pleased with the construction of it. He 
commended Mandrocles for his skill and fidelity in 
the highest terms, and loaded him with rewards and 
honors. Mandrocles used the money which Darius 
thus gave him in employing an artist to form a 
piece of statuary which should at once commemorate 
the building of the bridge and give to Darius the 
glory of it. The group represented the Bosporus 
with the bridge thrown over it, and the king on his 
throne reviewing his troops as they passed over the 
structure. This statuary was placed, when finished, 
in a temple in Greece, where it was universally ad- 
mired. Darius was very much pleased both with the 
idea of this sculpture on the part of Mandrocles, and 
with the execution of it by the artist. He gave the 
bridge builder new rewards; he recompensed the 
artist, also, with similar munificence. He was pleased 
that they had contrived so happy a way of at the 
same time commemorating the bridging of the Bos- 
porus and rendering exalted honor to him. 

The bridge was situated about the middle of the 
Bosporus; and as the strait itself is about eighteen 
miles long, it was nine miles from the bridge to the 
Euxine Sea. There is a small group of islands near 
the mouth of this strait, where it opens into the 



158 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

sea, which were called in those days the Cyanean 
Islands. They were famed in the time of Darius for 
having once been floating islands, and enchanted. 
Their supernatural properties had disappeared, but 
there was one attraction which still pertained to 
them. They were situated beyond the limits of the 
strait, and the visitor who landed upon them could 
take his station on some picturesque cliff or smiling 
hill, and extend his view far and wide over the blue 
waters of the Euxine Sea. 

Darius determined to make an excursion to these 
islands while the fleet and the army were completing 
their preparations at the bridge. He embarked, ac- 
cordingly, on board a splendid galley, and, sailing 
along the Bosporus till he reached the sea, he landed 
on one of the islands. There was a temple there, 
consecrated to one of the Grecian deities. Darius, ac- 
companied by his attendants and followers, ascended 
to this temple, and, taking a seat which had been 
provided for him there, he surveyed the broad ex- 
panse of water which extended like an ocean before 
him, and contemplated the grandeur of the scene 
with the greatest admiration and delight. 

At length he returned to the bridge, where he 
found the preparations for the movement of the fleet 
and of the army nearly completed. He determined, 
before leaving the Asiatic shores, to erect a monument 
to commemorate his expedition, on the spot from 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 159 

which he was to take his final departure. He ac- 
cordingly directed two columns of white marble to be 
reared, and inscriptions to be cut upon them, giving 
such particulars in respect to the expedition as it was 
desirable thus to preserve. These inscriptions con- 
tained his own name in very conspicuous characters 
as the leader of the enterprise; also an enumeration 
of the various nations that had contributed to form 
his army, with the numbers which each had furnished. 
There was a record of corresponding particulars, too, 
in respect to the fleet. The inscriptions were the 
same upon the two columns, except that upon ( the 
one it was written in the Assyrian tongue, which 
was the general language of the Persian empire, and 
upon the other in the Greek. Thus the two monu- 
ments were intended, the one for the Asiatic, and 
the other for the European world. 

At length the day of departure arrived. The fleet 
set sail, and the immense train of the army put itself 
in motion to cross the bridge. The fleet went on 
through the Bosporus to the Euxine, and thence along 
the western coast of that sea till it reached the mouths 
of the Danube. The ships entered the river by one 
of the branches which form the delta of the stream, 
and ascended for two days. This carried them above 
the ramifications into which the river divides itself at 
its mouth, to a spot where the current was confined 
to a single channel, and where the banks were firm. 



160 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

Here they landed, and while one part of the force 
which they had brought were occupied in organizing 
guards and providing defenses to protect the ground, 
the remainder commenced the work of arranging the 
vessels of the fleet, side by side, across the stream, to 
form the bridge. 

In the mean time, Darius, leading the great 
body of the army, advanced from the Bosporus by 
land. The country which the troops thus traversed 
was Thrace. They met with various adventures as 
they proceeded, and saw, as the accounts of the ex- 
pedition state, many strange and marvelous phenom- 
ena. They came, for example, to the sources of a 
very wonderful river, which flows west and south 
toward the ^Egean Sea. The name of the river was 
the Teams. It came from thirty-eight springs, all 
issuing from the same rock, some hot and some 
cold. The waters of the stream which was produced 
by the mingling of these fountains were pure, limpid, 
and delicious, and were possessed of remarkable 
medicinal properties, being efficacious for the cure of 
various diseases. Darius was so much pleased with 
this river, that his army halted to refresh themselves 
with its waters, and he caused one of his monuments 
to be erected on the spot, the inscription of which 
contained not only the usual memorials of the march, 
but also a tribute to the salubrity of the waters of 
this magical stream. 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 161 

At one point in the course of the march through 
Thrace, Darius conceived the idea of varying the con- 
struction of his line of monuments by building a 
cairn. A cairn is a heap of stones, such as is reared 
in the mountains of Scotland and of Switzerland by 
the voluntary additions of every passer by, to com- 
memorate a spot marked as the scene of some acci- 
dent or disaster. As each guide finishes the story of 
the incident in the hearing of the party which he 
conducts, each tourist who has listened to it adds his 
stone to the heap, until the rude structure attains 
sometimes to a very considerable size. Darius, fix- 
ing upon a suitable spot near one of his encamp- 
ments, commanded every soldier in the army to bring 
a stone and place it on the pile. A vast mound 
rose rapidly from these contributions, which, when 
completed, not only commemorated the march of the 
army, but denoted, also, by the immense number of 
the stones entering into the composition of the pile, 
the countless multitude of soldiers that formed the 
expedition. 

There was a story told to Darius, as he was trav- 
ersing these regions, of a certain king, reigning over 
some one of the nations that occupied them, who 
wished to make an enumeration of the inhabitants 
of his realm. The mode which he adopted was to 
require every man in his dominions to send him an 
arrow head. When all the arrow heads were in, the 

M. ofH.— 17— 11 



162 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

vast collection was counted by the official arithme- 
ticians, and the total of the population was thus at- 
tained. The arrow heads were then laid together in 
a sort of monumental pile. It was, perhaps, this 
primitive mode of census-taking which suggested to 
Darius the idea of his cairn. 

There was a tribe of barbarians through whose 
dominions Darius passed on his way from the Bos- 
porus to the Danube, that observed a custom in their 
religious worship which, though in itself of a shock- 
ing character, suggests reflections of salutary influ- 
ence for our own minds. There is a universal instinct 
in the human heart, leading it strongly to feel the 
need of help from an unseen and supernatural world 
in its sorrows and trials; and it is almost always the 
case that rude and savage nations, in their attempts to 
obtain this spiritual aid, connect the idea of personal 
privation and suffering on their part, self-inflicted if 
necessary, as a means of. seeking it. It seems as if 
the instinctive conviction of personal guilt, which 
associates itself so naturally and so strongly in the 
minds of men with all conceptions of the unseen 
world and of divine power, demands something like 
an expiation as an essential prerequisite to obtaining 
audience and acceptance with the King of Heaven. 
The tribe of savages above referred to manifested this 
feeling by a dreadful observance. Once in every five 
years they were accustomed to choose by lot, with 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 163 

solemn ceremonies, one of their number, to be sent 
as a legate or embassador to their god. The victim, 
when chosen, was laid down upon the ground in the 
midst of the vast assembly convened to witness the 
rite, while officers designated for the purpose stood 
by, armed with javelins. Other men, selected for 
their great personal strength, then took the man from 
the ground by the hands and feet, and swinging him 
to and fro three times to gain momentum, they 
threw him with all their force into the air, and the 
armed men, when he came down, caught him on 
the points of their javelins. If he was killed by this 
dreadful impalement, all was right. He would bear 
the message of the wants and necessities of the 
tribe to their god, and they might reasonably ex- 
pect a favorable reception. If, on the other hand, 
he did not die, he was thought to be rejected 
by the god as a wicked man and an unsuitable mes- 
senger. The unfortunate convalescent was, in such 
cases, dismissed in disgrace, and another messenger 
chosen. 

The army of Darius reached the banks of the 
Danube at last, and they found that the fleet of the 
Ionians had attained the point agreed upon before 
them, and were awaiting their arrival. The vessels 
were soon arranged in the form of a bridge across 
the stream, and as there was no enemy at hand to 
embarrass them, the army soon accomplished the 



1 64 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

passage. They were now fairly in the Scythian coun- 
try, and immediately began their preparations to ad- 
vance and meet the foe. Darius gave orders to have 
the bridge broken up, and the galleys abandoned and 
destroyed, as he chose rather to take with him the 
whole of his force, than to leave a guard behind suf- 
ficient to protect this shipping. These orders were 
about to be executed, when a Grecian general, who 
was attached to one of the bodies of troops which 
were furnished from the provinces of Asia Minor, 
asked leave to speak to the king. The king granted 
him an audience, when he expressed his opinion as 
follows : 

"It seems to me to be more prudent, sire, to 
leave the bridge as it is, under the care of those who 
have constructed it, as it may be that we shall have 
occasion to use it on our return. I do not recom- 
mend the preservation of it as a means of securing a 
retreat, for, in case we meet the Scythians at all, I 
am confident of victory; but our enemy consists of 
wandering hordes who have no fixed habitation, and 
their country is entirely without cities or posts of any 
kind which they will feel any strong interest in de- 
fending, and thus it is possible that we may not be 
able to find any enemy to combat. Besides, if we 
succeed in our enterprise as completely as we can 
desire, it will be important, on many accounts, to 



B.C. 513] INVASION OF SCYTHIA 165 

preserve an open and free communication with the 
countries behind us." 



The king approved of this counsel, and counter- 
manded his orders for the destruction of the bridge. 
He directed that the Ionian forces that had accom- 
panied the fleet should remain at the river to guard 
the bridge. They were to remain thus on guard for 
two months, and then, if Darius did not return, and 
if they heard no tidings of him, they were at liberty 
to leave their post, and to go back, with their galleys, 
to their own land again. 

Two months would seem to be a very short time 
to await the return of an army going on such an ex- 
pedition into boundless and trackless wilds. There 
can, however, scarcely be any accidental error in the 
statement of the time, as the mode which Darius 
adopted to enable the guard thus left at the bridge to 
keep their reckoning was a very singular one, and it 
is very particularly described. He took a cord, it is 
said, and tied sixty knots in it. This cord he de- 
livered to the Ionian chiefs who were to be left in 
charge of the bridge, directing them to untie one of 
the knots every day. When the cord should become, 
by this process, wholly free, the detachment were 
also at liberty. They might thereafter, at any time, 
abandon the post intrusted to them, and return to 
their homes. 



166 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

We can not suppose that military men, capable of 
organizing a force of seventy thousand troops for so 
distant an expedition, and possessed of sufficient 
science and skill to bridge the Bosporus and the 
Danube, could have been under any necessity of 
adopting so childish a method as this as a real reliance 
in regulating their operations. It must be recollected, 
however, that, though the commanders in these ancient 
days were intelligent and strong-minded men, the 
common soldiers were but children both in intellect 
and in ideas; and it was the custom of all great 
commanders to employ outward and visible symbols 
to influence and govern them. The sense of loneliness 
and desertion which such soldiers would naturally 
feel in being left in solitude on the banks of the river, 
would be much diminished by seeing before them 
a marked and definite termination to the period of 
their stay, and to have, in the cord hanging up in 
their camp, a visible token that the remnant of time 
that remained was steadily diminishing day by day; 
while, in the mean time, Darius was fully determined 
that, long before the knots should be all untied, he 
would return to the river. 




CHAPTER IX. 

The Retreat from Scythia. 

Motive for Darius's invasion. — The foundation of government. — Darius with- 
out jurisdiction in invading Scythia. — Alarm of the Scythians. — Condition 
of the tribes. — Men metamorphosed into wolves. — Story of the Amazons. 
— Adventures of the Amazons. — Two of them captured. — The corps of cav- 
aliers. — Their maneuvers. — Success of the cavaliers. — Matrimonial alli- 
ances.— The Amazons rule their husbands. — They establish a separate 
tribe. — Tlie Scythians send an embassy to the neighboring tribes. — Habits 
of the Scythians.— Their mode of warfare. — Message to Indathyrsus. — His 
reply. — The Scythian cavalry. — Their attacks on the Persians. — Braying 
of the Persian asses. — Scythians sent to the bridge. — Agreement with 
the Ionians. — The Scythians change their policy. — The Scythians' 
strange presents. — Various interpretations. — Opinions of the Persian of- 
ficers. — The Scythians draw up their forces. — The armies prepare for bat- 
tle. — Hunting the hare. — The Persians resolve to retreat. — Stratagem 
and secret flight. — Surrender of the camp. — Difficulties of the retreat. — 
The bridge partially destroyed. — Darius arrives at the Danube. — The 
bridge repaired.— The army returns to Asia. 

The motive which dictated Darius's invasion of 
Scythia seems to have been purely a selfish 
and domineering love of power. The at- 
tempts of a stronger and more highly civilized state 
to extend its dominion over a weaker and more law- 
less one, are not, however, necessarily and always of 
this character. Divine Providence, in making men 
gregarious in nature, has given them an instinct of 
organization, which is as intrinsic and as essential a 

characteristic of the human soul as maternal love or 

(.67) 



168 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

the principle of self-preservation. The right, there- 
fore, of organizations of men to establish law and 
order among themselves, and to extend these princi- 
ples to other communities around them, so far as 
such interpositions are really promotive of the inter- 
ests and welfare of those affected by them, rests on 
precisely the same foundation as the right of the 
father to govern the child. This foundation is the 
existence and universality of an instinctive principle 
implanted by the Creator in the human heart; a prin- 
ciple which we are bound to submit to both, because 
it is a fundamental and constituent element in the 
very structure of man, and because its recognition 
and the acknowledgment of its authority are abso- 
lutely essential to his continued existence. Wherever 
law and order, therefore, among men do not exist, it 
may be properly established and enforced by any 
neighboring organization that has power to do it, 
just as wherever there is a group of children they 
may be justly controlled and governed by their father. 
It seems equally unnecessary to invent a fictitious and 
wholly imaginary compact to justify the jurisdiction in 
the one case as in the other. 

If the Scythians, therefore, had been in a state of con- 
fusion and anarchy, Darius might justly have extended 
his own well-regulated and settled government over 
them, and, in so doing, would have promoted the 
general good of mankind. But he had no such de- 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 169 

sign. It was a desire for personal aggrandizement, and 
a love of fame and power, which prompted him. 
He offered it as a pretext to justify his invasion, that 
the Scythians, in former years, had made incursions into 
the Persian dominions; but this was only a pretext. 
The expedition was a wanton attack upon neighbors 
whom he supposed unable to resist him, simply for 
the purpose of adding to his own already gigantic 
power. 

When Darius commenced his march from the river, 
the Scythians had heard rumors of his approach. 
They sent, as soon as they were aware of the impend- 
ing danger, to all the nations and tribes around them, 
in order to secure their alliance and aid. These peo- 
ple were all wandering and half-savage tribes, like 
the Scythians themselves, though each seems to have 
possessed its own special and distinctive mark of bar- 
barity. One tribe were accustomed to carry home the 
heads of the enemies whom they had slain in battle, 
and each one, impaling his own dreadful trophy upon 
a stake, would set it up upon his house-top, over the 
chimney, where they imagined that it would have 
the effect of a charm, and serve as a protection for 
the family. Another tribe lived in habits of promis- 
cuous intercourse, like the lower orders of animals; 
and so, as the historian absurdly states, being, in 
consequence of this mode of life, all connected to- 
gether by the ties of consanguinity, they lived in per- 



170 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

petual peace and good will, without any envy, or 
jealousy, or other evil passion. A third occupied a 
region so infested with serpents that they were once 
driven wholly out of the country by them. It was 
said of these people that, once in every year, they 
were all metamorphosed into wolves, and, after re- 
maining for a few days in this form, they were trans- 
formed again into men, A fourth tribe painted their 
bodies blue and red, and a fifth were cannibals. 

The most remarkable, however, of all the tales re- 
lated about these northern savages was the story of 
the Sauromateans and their Amazonian wives. The 
Amazons were a nation of masculine and ferocious 
women, who often figure in ancient histories and 
legends. They rode on horseback astride like men, 
and their courage and strength in battle were such 
that scarcely any troops could subdue them. It hap- 
pened, however, upon one time, that some Greeks 
conquered a body of them somewhere upon the shores 
of the Euxine Sea, and took a large number of them 
prisoners. They placed these prisoners on board of 
three ships, and put to sea. The Amazons rose upon 
their captors and threw them overboard, and thus ob- 
tained possession of the ships. They immediately 
proceeded toward the shore, and landed, not know- 
ing where they were. It happened to be on the 
northwestern coast of the sea that they landed. Here 
they roamed up and down the country, until presently 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 171 

they fell in with a troop of horses. These they seized 
and mounted, arming themselves, at the same time, 
either with the weapons which they had procured on 
board the ships, or fabricated, themselves, on the 
shore. Thus organized and equipped, they began to 
make excursions for plunder, and soon became a most 
formidable band of marauders. The Scythians of the 
country supposed that they were men, but they could 
learn nothing certain respecting them. Their lan- 
guage, their appearance, their manners, and their 
dress were totally new, and the inhabitants were 
utterly unable to conceive who they were, and from 
what place they could so suddenly and mysteriously 
have come. 

At last, in one of the encounters which took place, 
the Scythians took two of these strange invaders pris- 
oners. To their utter amazement, they found that 
they were women. On making this discovery, they 
changed their mode of dealing with them, and re- 
solved upon a plan based on the supposed universality 
of the instincts of their sex. They enlisted a corps of 
the most handsome and vigorous young men that 
rould be obtained, and after giving them instructions, 
the nature of which will be learned by the result, 
they sent them forth to meet the Amazons. 

The corps of Scythian cavaliers went out to seek 
their female antagonists with designs any thing but 
belligerent. They advanced to the encampment of 



172 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

the Amazons, and hovered about for some time in 
their vicinity, without, however, making any warlike 
demonstrations. They had been instructed to show 
themselves as much as possible to the enemy, but by 
nO means to tight them. They would, accordingly, 
draw as near to the Amazons as was sate, and linger 
there, gazing upon them, as if under the influence of 
some sort oi fascination. If the Amazons advanced 
toward them, they would fall back, and if the ad- 
vance continued, they would retreat fast enough to 
keep effectually out of the way. Then, when the 
Amazons turned, they would turn too. follow them 
back, and linger near them, around their encamp- 
ment, as before. 

The Amazonians were for a time puzzled with 
this strange demeanor, and they gradually learned to 
look upon the handsome horsemen at first without 
fear, and finally even without hostility. At length, 
one day. one o( the young horsemen, observing an 
Amazon who had strayed away from the rest, fol- 
lowed and joined her. She did not repel him. They 
were not able to converse together, as neither knew 
the language of the other. They established a friendly 
intercourse, however, by looks and signs, and after a 
time they separated, each agreeing to bring one of 
their companions to the place of rendezvous on the 
following day. 

A friendly intercommunication being thus com- 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 173 

menced, the example spread very rapidly; matrimo- 
nial alliances began to be formed, and, in a word, a 
short time only elapsed before the two camps were 
united and intermingled, the Scythians and the Ama- 
zons being all paired together in the most intimate re- 
lations of domestic life. Thus, true to the instincts 
of their sex, the rude and terrible maidens decided, 
when the alternative was fairly presented to them, in 
favor of husbands and homes, rather than continuing 
the life they had led, of independence, conflict, and 
plunder. It is curious to observe that the means by 
which they were won, namely, a persevering display 
of admiration and attentions, steadily continued, but 
not too eagerly and impatiently pressed, and varied 
with an adroit and artful alternation of advances 
and retreats, were precisely the same as those by 
which, in every age, the attempt is usually made to 
win the heart of woman from hatred and hostility to 
love. 

We speak of the Ama,zonians as having been won; 
but they were, in fact, themselves the conquerors of 
their captors, after all; for it appeared, in the end, 
that in the future plans and arrangements of the united 
body, they ruled their Scythian husbands, and not 
the Scythians them. The husbands wished to return 
home with their wives, whom, they said, they would 
protect and maintain in the midst of their countrymen 
in honor and in peace. The Amazons, however, were 



t? 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. $1$ 

in favor of another plan. Their habits and manners 
were such, they said, that they should not be re- 
spected and beloved among any other people. They 
wished that their husbands, therefore, would go home 
and settle their affairs, and afterward return and join 
their wives again, and then that all together should 
move to the eastward, until they should find a suita- 
ble place to settle in by themselves. This plan was 
acceded to by the husbands, and was carried into 
execution; and the result was the planting of a new 
nation, called the Sauromateans, who thenceforth 
took their place among the other barbarous tribes 
that dwelt upon the northern shores of the Euxine 
Sea. 

Such was the character of the tribes and nations 
that dwelt in the neighborhood of the Scythian 
country. As soon as Darius had passed the river, the 
Scythians sent embassadors to all their people, pro- 
posing to them to form a general alliance against the 
invader. "We ought to make common cause against 
him," said they; "for if he subdues one nation, it 
will only open the way for an attack upon the rest. 
Some of us are, it is true, more remote than others 
from the immediate danger, but it threatens us all 
equally in the end." 

The embassadors delivered their message, and some 
of the tribes acceded to the Scythian proposals. 
Others, however, refused. The quarrel, they said, 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 175 

was a quarrel between Darius and the Scythians alone, 
and they were not inclined to bring upon themselves 
the hostility of so powerful a sovereign by interfering. 
The Scythians were very indignant at this refusal; 
but there was no remedy, and they accordingly be- 
gan to prepare to defend themselves as well as they 
could, with the help of those nations that had ex- 
pressed a willingness to join them. 

The habits of the Scythians were nomadic and 
wandering, and their country was one vast region of 
verdant and beautiful, and yet, in a great measure, of 
uncultivated and trackless wilds. They had few towns 
and villages, and those few were of little value. They 
adopted, therefore, the mode of warfare which, ' in 
such a country and for such a people, is always the 
wisest to be pursued. They retreated slowly before 
Darius's advancing army, carrying off or destroying 
all such property as might aid the king in respect to 
hi's supplies. They organized and equipped a body 
of swift horsemen, who were ordered to hover around 
Darius's camp, and bring intelligence to the Scythian 
generals of every movement. These horsemen, too, 
were to harass the flanks and the rear of the army, 
and to capture or destroy every man whom they 
should find straying away from the camp. By this 
means they kept the- invading army continually on 
the alert, allowing them no peace and no repose, 
while yet they thwarted and counteracted all the 



176 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

plans and efforts which the enemy made to bring on 
a general battle. 

As the Persians advanced in pursuit of the enemy, 
the Scythians retreated, and in this retreat they di- 
rected their course toward the countries occupied by 
those nations that had refused to join in the alliance. 
By this artful management they transferred the calam- 
ity and the burden of the war to the territories of 
their neighbors. Darius soon found that he was mak- 
ing no progress toward gaining his end. At length 
he concluded to try the effect of a direct and open 
challenge. 

He accordingly sent embassadors to the Scythian 
chief, whose name was Indathyrsus, with a message 
somewhat as follows: 

"Foolish man! how long will you continue to act 
in this absurd and preposterous manner? It is incum- 
bent on you to make a decision in favor of one thing 
or the other. If you think that you are able to con- 
tend with me, stop, and let us engage. If not, then 
acknowledge me as your superior, and submit to my 
authority." 

The Scythian' chief sent back the following reply: 

"We have no inducement to contend with you in 
open battle on the field, because you are not doing 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 177 

us any injury, nor is it at present in your power to 
do us any. We have no cities and no cultivated 
fields that you can seize or plunder. Your roaming 
about our country, therefore, does us no harm, and 
you are at liberty to continue it as long as it gives 
you any pleasure. There is nothing on our soil that 
you can injure, except one spot, and that is the place 
where the sepulchres of our fathers lie. If you 
were to attack that spot — which you may perhaps 
do, if you can find it — you may rely upon a battle. 
In the mean time, you may go elsewhere, wher- 
ever you please. As to acknowledging your su- 
periority, we shall do nothing of the kind. We defy 
you." 

Notwithstanding the refusal of the Scythians to 
give the Persians battle, they yet made, from time to 
time, partial and unexpected onsets upon their camp, 
seizing occasions when they hoped to find their 
enemies off their guard. The Scythians had troops 
of cavalry which were very efficient and successful in 
these attacks. These horsemen were, however, some- 
times thrown into confusion and driven back by a 
very singular means of defense. It seems that the 
Persians had brought with them from Europe, in 
their train, a great number of asses, as beasts of 
burden, to transport the tents and the baggage of the 
army. These asses were accustomed, in times of ex- 

M. of H.— 17— 12 



178 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

citement and danger, to set up a very terrific braying. 
It was, in fact, all that they could do. Braying at a 
danger seems to be a very ridiculous mode of at- 
tempting to avert it, but it was a tolerably effectual 
mode, nevertheless, in this case at least; for the Scyth- 
ian horses, who would have faced spears and jave- 
lins, and the loudest shouts and vociferations of 
human adversaries without any fear, were appalled 
and put to flight at hearing the unearthly noises 
which issued from the Persian camp whenever they 
approached it. Thus the mighty monarch of the 
whole Asiatic world seemed to depend for protection 
against the onsets of these rude and savage troops 
on the braying of his asses! 

While these things were going on in the interior 
of the country, the Scythians sent down a detach- 
ment of their forces to the banks of the Danube, to 
see if they could not, in some way or other, obtain 
possession of the bridge. They learned here what 
the orders were which Darius had given to the Ioni- 
ans who had been left in charge, in respect to the 
time of their remaining at their post. The Scythians 
told them that if they would govern themselves 
strictly by those orders, and so break up the bridge 
and go down the river with their boats as soon as 
the two months should have expired, they should not 
be molested in the mean time. The Ionians agreed 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 179 

to this. The time was then already nearly gone, and 
they promised that, so soon as it should be fully ex- 
pired, they would withdraw. 

The Scythian detachment sent back word to the 
main army acquainting them with these facts, and 
the army accordingly resolved on a change in their 
policy. Instead of harassing and distressing the Per- 
sians as they had done, to hasten their departure, 
they now determined to improve the situation of 
their enemies, and encourage them in their hopes, so 
as to protract their stay. They accordingly allowed 
the Persians to gain the advantage over them in 
small skirmishes, and they managed, also, to have 
droves of cattle fall into their hands, from time to 
time, so as to supply them with food. The Persians 
were quite elated with these indications that the tide 
of fortune was about to turn in their favor. 

While things were in this state, there appeared one 
day at the Persian camp a messenger from the 
Scythians, who said that he had some presents from 
the Scythian chief for Darius. The messenger was 
admitted, and allowed to deliver his gifts. The gifts 
proved to be a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. 
The Persians asked the bearer of these strange offer- 
ings what the Scythians meant by them. He replied 
that he had no explanations to give. His orders 
were, he said, to deliever the presents and then re- 
turn; and that they must, accordingly, find out 



i8o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

the meaning intended by the exercise of their own 
ingenuity. 

When the messenger had retired, Darius and the 
Persians consulted together to determine what so 
strange a communication could mean. They could 
not, however, come to any satisfactory decision. 
Darius said that he thought the three animals might 
probably be intended to denote the three kingdoms of 
nature to which the said animals respectively belonged, 
viz., the air, the earth, and the water; and as the giving 
up of weapons was a token of submission, the whole 
might mean that the Scythians were now ready to 
give up the contest, and acknowledge the right of the 
Persians to supreme and universal dominion. 

The officers, however, did not generally concur in 
this opinion. They saw no indications, they said, of 
any disposition on the part of the Scythians to 
surrender. They thought it quite as probable that the 
communication was meant to announce to those who 
received it threats and defiance, as to express concilia- 
tion and submission. "It may mean," said one of 
them, "that, unless you can fly like a bird into the 
air, or hide like a mouse in the ground, or bury your- 
selves, like the frog, in morasses and fens, you can 
not escape our arrows." 

There was no means of deciding positively between 
these contradictory interpretations, but it soon became 
evident that the former of the two was very far from be- 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 181 

ing correct; for, soon after the presents were received, 
the Scythians were seen to be drawing up their forces 
in array, as if preparing for battle. The two months 
had expired, and they had reason to suppose that the 
party at the bridge had withdrawn, as they had 
promised to do. Darius had been so far weakened by 
his harassing marches, and the manifold privations 
and sufferings of his men, that he felt some solicitude 
in respect to the result of a battle, now that it seemed 
to be drawing near, although such a trial of strength 
had been the object which he had been, from the 
beginning, most .eager to secure. 

The two armies were encamped at a moderate dis- 
tance from each other, with a plain, partly wooded, 
between them. While in this position, and before 
any hostile action was commenced by either party, it 
was observed from the camp of Darius that suddenly 
a great tumult arose from the Scythian lines. Men 
were seen rushing in dense crowds this way and 
that over the plain, with shouts and outcries, which, 
however, had in them no expression of anger or fear, 
but rather one of gayety and pleasure. Darius de- 
manded what the strange tumult meant. Some mes- 
sengers were sent out to ascertain the cause, and on 
their return they reported that the Scythians were 
hunting a hare, which had suddenly made its appear- 
ance. The hare had issued from a thicket, and a 
considerable portion of the army, officers and soldiers, 



182 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

had abandoned their ranks to enjoy the sport of pur- 
suing it, and were running impetuously, here and 
there, across the plain, filling the air with shouts of 
hilarity. 

"They do indeed despise us," said Darius, "since, 
on the eve of a battle, they can lose all thoughts of 
us and of their danger, and abandon their posts to 
hunt a hare ! " 

That evening a council of war was held. It was 
concluded that the Scythians must be very confident 
and strong in their position, and that, if a general 
battle were to be hazarded, it would be Very doubt- 
ful what would be the result. The Persians con- 
cluded unanimously, therefore, that the wisest plan 
would be for them to give up the intended conquest, 
and retire from the country. Darius accordingly pro- 
ceeded to make his preparations for a secret retreat. 

He separated all the infirm and feeble portion of 
the army from the rest, and informed them that he 
was going that night on a short expedition with the 
main body of the troops, and that, while he was 
gone, they were to remain and defend the camp. He 
ordered the men to build the camp fires, and to 
make them larger and more numerous than common, 
and then had the asses tied together in an unusual 
situation, so that they should keep up a continual 
braying. These sounds, heard all the night, and the 
light of the camp fires, were to lead the Scythians to 












DARIUS INVOKING THE SUN 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 183 

believe that the whole body of the Persians remained, 
as usual, at the encampment, and thus to prevent all 
suspicion of their flight. 

Toward midnight, Darius marched forth in silence 
and secrecy, with all the vigorous and able-bodied 
forces under his command, leaving the weary, the 
sick, and the infirm to the mercy of their enemies. 
The long column succeeded in making good their 
retreat, without exciting the suspicions of the Scyth- 
ians. They took the route which they supposed 
would conduct them most directly to the river. 

When the troops which remained in the camp 
found, on the following morning, that they had been 
deceived and abandoned, they made signals to the 
Scythians to come to them, and, when they came, 
the invalids surrendered themselves and the camp to 
their possession. The Scythians then, immediately, 
leaving a proper guard to defend the camp, set out 
to follow the Persian army. Instead, however, of 
keeping directly upon their track, they took a shorter 
course, which would lead them more speedily to the 
river. The Persians, being unacquainted with the 
country, got involved in fens and morasses, and other 
difficulties of the way, and their progress was thus 
so much impeded that the Scythians reached the river 
before them. 

They found the Ionians still there, although the 
two months had fully expired. It is possible that the 



1 84 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 513 

chiefs had received secret orders from Darius not to 
hasten their departure, even after the knots had all 
been untied; or perhaps they chose, of their own ac- 
cord, to await their sovereign's return. The Scythians 
immediately urged them to be gone. "The time has 
expired," they said, "and you are no longer under 
any obligation to wait. Return to your own country, 
and assert your own independence and freedom, which 
you can safely do if you leave Darius and his armies 
here." 

The Ionians consulted together on the subject, 
doubtful, at first, what to do. They concluded that 
they would not comply with the Scythian proposals, 
while yet they determined to pretend to comply with 
them, in order to avoid the danger of being attacked. 
They accordingly began to take the bridge to pieces, 
commencing on the Scythian side of the stream. The 
Scythians, seeing the work thus going on, left the 
ground, and marched back to meet the Persians. 
The armies, however, fortunately for Darius, missed 
each other, and the Persians arrived safely at the 
river, after the Scythians had left it. They arrived in 
the night, and the advanced guard, seeing no appear- 
ance of the bridge on the Scythian side, supposed 
that the Ionians had gone. They shouted long and 
loud on the shore, and at length an Egyptian, who 
was celebrated for the power of his voice, succeeded 
in making the Ionians hear. The boats were imme- 



B.C. 513] RETREAT 185 

diately brought back to their positions, the bridge 
was reconstructed, and Darius's army recrossed the 
stream. 

The Danube being thus safely crossed, the army 
made the best of its way back through Thrace, and 
across the Bosporus into Asia, and thus ended Dari- 
us's great expedition against the Scythians. 




CHAPTER X. 

The Story of Histleus. 

Histiseus at the bridge on the Danube. — Darius : s anxiety. — Darius's gratitude. 

— Scythia abandoned. — Darius sends for Histiseus. — Petition of Histi- 
seus. — Histiseus organizes a colony. — The Pseonians.— Baseness of the 
Pseonian chiefs. — Their stratagem. — The Pseonian maiden. — Multiplic- 
ity of her avocations. — Darius and the maiden. — He determines to make 
the Pseonians slaves. — Capture of the Pseonians. — Megabyzus discovers 
Histiaeus's city. — Histiseus sent for. — Darius revokes his gift. — Histiseus 
goes to Susa. — Artaphernes. — Island of Naxos. — Civil war there. — Ac- 
tion of Aristagoras. — Co-operation of Artaphernes. — Darius consulted. — 
His approval. — Preparations. — Sailing of the expedition. — Plan of the 
commander. — Difficulty in the fleet. — Cruel discipline. — Dissension be- 
tween the commanders. — The expedition fails. — Chagrin of Aristagoras. 

— He resolves to revolt. — Position of Histiseus. — His uneasiness. — Singu- 
lar mode of communication. — Its success. — Revolt of Aristagoras. — 
Feigned indignation of Histiseus. — The Ionian rebellion. — Its failure. — 
Death of Histiseus. 

The nature of the government which was exer- 
cised in ancient times by a royal despot like 
Darius, and the character of the measures and 
management to which he was accustomed to resort 
to gain his political ends, are, in many points, very 
strikingly illustrated by the story of Histiseus. 

Histiseus was the Ionian chieftain who had been 
left in charge of the bridge of boats across the Dan- 
ube when Darius made his incursion into Scythia. 

When, on the failure of the expedition, Darius re- 
(186) 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTLEUS 187 

turned to the river, knowing, as he did, that the two 
months had expired, he naturally felt a considerable 
degree of solicitude lest he should find the bridge 
broken up and the vessels gone, in which case his 
situation would be very desperate, hemmed in, as he 
would have been, between the Scythians and the 
river. His anxiety was changed into terror when his 
advance guard arrived at the bank and found that no 
signs of the bridge were to be seen. It is easy to 
imagine what, under these circumstances, must have 
been the relief and joy of all the army, when they 
heard friendly answers to their shouts, coming, through 
the darkness of the night, over the. waters of the 
river, assuring them that their faithful allies were still 
at their posts, and that they themselves would soon 
be in safety. 

Darius, though he was governed by no firm and 
steady principles of justice, was still a man of many 
generous impulses. He was grateful for favors, 
though somewhat capricious in his modes of requit- 
ing them. He declared to Histiaeus that he felt under 
infinite obligations to him for his persevering fidelity, 
and that, as soon as the army should have safely ar- 
rived in Asia, he would confer upon him such re- 
wards as would evince the reality of his gratitude. 

On his return from Scythia, Darius brought back 
the whole of his army over the Danube, thus aban- 
doning entirely the country of the Scythians; but he 



188 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

did not transport the whole body across the Bosporus. 
He left a considerable detachment of troops, under the 
command of one of his generals, named Megabyzus, 
in Thrace, on the European side, ordering Megabyzus 
to establish himself there, and to reduce all the coun- 
tries in that neighborhood to his sway. Darius then 
proceeded to Sardis, which was the most powerful 
and wealthy of his capitals in that quarter of the 
world. At Sardis, he was, as it were, at home again, 
and he accordingly took an early opportunity to send 
for Histiaeus, as well as some others who had ren- 
dered him special services in his late campaign, in 
order that he might agree with them in respect to 
their reward. He asked Histiaeus what favor he 
wished to receive. 

Histiaeus replied that he was satisfied, on the 
whole, with the position which he already enjoyed, 
which was that of king or governor of Miletus, an 
Ionian city, south of Sardis, and on the shores of the 
/Egean Sea. He should be pleased, however, he said, 
if the king would assign him a certain small territory 
in Thrace, or, rather, on the borders between Thrace 
and Macedonia, near the mouth of the River Strymon. 
He wished to build a city there. The king immedi- 
ately granted this request, which was obviously very 
moderate and reasonable. He did not, perhaps, con- 
sider that this territory, being in Thrace, or in its im- 
mediate vicinity, came within the jurisdiction of Meg- 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTLEUS 189 

abyzus, whom he had left in command there, and 
that the grant might lead to some conflict between 
the two generals. There was special danger of jeal- 
ousy and disagreement between them, for Megabyzus 
was a Persian, and Histiseus was a Greek. 

Histiseus organized a colony, and, leaving a tem- 
porary and provisional government at Miletus, he pro- 
ceeded along the shores of the y^gean Sea to the 
spot assigned him, and began to build his city. As 
the locality was beyond the Thracian frontier, and at 
a considerable distance from the head-quarters of 
Megabyzus, it is very probable that the operations of 
Histiseus would not have attracted the Persian gener- 
al's attention for a considerable time, had it not been 
for a very extraordinary and peculiar train of circum- 
stances, which led him to discover them. The cir- 
cumstances were these: 

There was a nation or tribe called the Pseonians, 
who inhabited the valley of the Strymon, which river 
came down from the interior of the country, and fell 
into the sea near the place where Histiseus was build- 
ing his city. Among the Paeonian chieftains there 
were two who wished to obtain the government of 
the country, but they were not quite strong enough 
to effect their object. In order to weaken the force 
which was opposed to them, they conceived the base 
design of betraying their tribe to Darius, and inducing 



i 9 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

him to make them captives. If their plan should suc- 
ceed, a considerable portion of the population would 
be taken away, and they could easily, they supposed, 
obtain ascendency over the rest. In order to call the 
attention of Darius to the subject, and induce him to 
act as they desired, they resorted to the following 
stratagem. Their object seems to have been to lead 
Darius to undertake a campaign against their country- 
men, by showing him what excellent and valuable 
slaves they would make. 

These two chieftains were brothers, and they had 
a very beautiful sister; her form was graceful and 
elegant, and her countenance lovely. They brought 
this sister with them to Sardis when Darius was 
there. They dressed and decorated her in a very 
careful manner, but yet in a style appropriate to the 
condition of a servant; and then, one day, when the 
king was sitting in some public place in the city, as was 
customary with Oriental sovereigns, they sent her to 
pass along the street before him, equipped in such a 
manner as to show that she was engaged in servile 
occupations. She had a jar, such as was then used 
for carrying water, poised upon her head, and she 
was leading a horse by means of a bridle hung over 
her arm. Her hands being thus not required either 
for the horse or for the vessel, were employed in 
spinning, as she walked along, by means of a distaff 
and spindle. 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTI^IUS 191 

The attention of Darius was strongly attracted to 
the spectacle. The beauty of the maiden, the novelty 
and strangeness of her costume, the multiplicity of 
her vocations, and the ease and grace with which 
she performed them, all conspired to awaken the 
monarch's curiosity. He directed one of his attend- 
ants to follow her and see where she should go. 
The attendant did so. The girl went to the river. 
She watered her horse, filled her jar and placed it on 
her head, and then, hanging the bridle on her arm 
again, she returned through the same streets, and 
passed where the king sat as before, spinning as she 
walked along. 

The interest and curiosity of the king was excited 
more than ever by the reappearance of the girl and 
by the report of his messenger. He directed that she 
should be stopped and brought into his presence. 
She came; and her brothers, who had been watch- 
ing the whole scene from a convenient spot near at 
hand, joined her and came too. The king asked 
them who they were. They replied that they were 
Paeonians. He wished to know where they lived. 
"On the banks of the River Strymon," they replied, 
"near the confines of Thrace." He next asked 
whether all the women of their country were accus- 
tomed to labor, and were as ingenious, and dexterous, 
and beautiful as their sister. The brothers replied 
that they were. 



192 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

Darius immediately determined to make the whole 
people slaves. He accordingly dispatched a courier 
with the orders. The courier crossed the Hellespont, 
and proceeded to the encampment of Megabyzus in 
Thrace. He delivered his dispatches to the Persian 
general, commanding him to proceed immediately to 
Pasonia, and there to take the whole community pris- 
oners, and bring them to Darius in Sardis. Megaby- 
zus, until this time, had known nothing of the people 
whom he was thus commanded to seize. He, how- 
ever, found some Thracian guides who undertook to 
conduct him to their territory; and then, taking with 
him a sufficient force, he set out on the expedition. 
The Paeonians heard of his approach. Some prepared 
to defend themselves; others fled to the mountains. 
The fugitives escaped, but those who attempted to 
resist were taken. Megabyzus collected the unfortu- 
nate captives, together with their wives and children, 
and brought them down to the coast to embark them 
for Sardis. In doing this, he had occasion to pass 
by the spot where Histiaeus was building his city, 
and it was then, for the first time, that Megabyzus 
became acquainted with the plan. Histiaeus was 
building a wall to defend his little territory on the 
side of the land. Ships and galleys were going and 
coming on the side of the sea. Every thing indi- 
cated that the work was rapidly and prosperously ad- 
vancing. 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTLEUS 193 

Megabyzus did not interfere with the work; but, 
as soon as he arrived at Sardis with his captives, and 
had delivered them to the king, he introduced the 
subject of Histiaeus's city, and represented to Darius 
that it would be dangerous to the Persian interests to 
allow such an enterprise to go on. "He will estab- 
lish a strong post there," said Megabyzus, "by means 
of which he will exercise a great ascendency over all 
the neighboring seas. The place is admirably situated 
for a naval station, as the country in the vicinity 
abounds with all the materials for building and equip- 
ping ships. There are also mines of silver in the 
mountains near, from which he will obtain a great 
supply of treasure. By these means he will become 
so strong in a short period of time, that, after you 
have returned to Asia, he will revolt from your 
authority, carrying with him, perhaps, in his rebel- 
lion, all the Greeks of Asia Minor." 

The king said that he was sorry that he had 
made the grant, and that he would revoke it with- 
out delay. 

Megabyzus recommended that the king should not 
do this in an open or violent manner, but that he 
should contrive some way to arrest the progress of 
the undertaking without any appearance of suspicion 
or displeasure. 

Darius accordingly sent for Histiaeus to come to 
him at Sardis, saying that there was a service of 

M. of H.— 17— 13 



i 9 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

great importance on which he wished to employ 
him. Histiseus, of course obeyed such a summons 
with eager alacrity. When he arrived, Darius ex- 
pressed great pleasure at seeing him once more, and 
said that he had constant need of his presence and 
his counsels. He valued, above all price, the services 
of so faithful a friend, and so sagacious and trusty an 
adviser. He was now, he said, going to Susa, and 
he wished Histiseus to accompany him as his privy 
counselor and confidential friend. It would be nec- 
essary, Darius added, that he should give up his gov- 
ernment of Miletus, and also the city in Thrace which 
he had begun to build; but he should be exalted to 
higher honors and dignities at Susa in their stead. 
He should have apartments in the king's palace, and 
live in great luxury and splendor. 

Histiasus was extremely disappointed and chagrined 
at this announcement. He was obliged, however, to 
conceal his vexation and submit to his fate. In a few 
days after this, he set out, with the rest of Darius's 
court, for the Persian capital, leaving a nephew, 
whose name was Aristagoras, as governor of Miletus 
in his stead. Darius, on the other hand, committed 
the general charge of the whole coast of Asia Minor 
to Artaphernes, one of his generals. Artaphernes was 
to make Sardis his capital. He had not only the 
general command of all the provinces extending along 
the shore, but also of all the ships, and galleys, and 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTLEUS 195 

other naval armaments which belonged to Darius on 
the neighboring seas. Aristagoras, as governor of 
Miletus, was under his general jurisdiction. The two 
officers were, moreover, excellent friends. Aristagoras 
was, of course, a Greek, and Artaphernes a Persian. 

Among the Greek islands situated in the y^gean 
Sea, one of the most wealthy, important, and power- 
ful at that time, was Naxos. It was situated in the 
southern part of the sea, and about midway between 
the shores of Asia Minor and Greece. It happened 
that, soon after Darius had returned from Asia Minor 
to Persia, a civil war broke out in that island, in 
which the common people were on one side and the 
nobles on the other. The nobles were overcome in 
the contest, and fled from the island. A party of 
them landed at Miletus, and called upon Aristagoras 
to aid them in regaining possession of the island. 

Aristagoras replied that he would very gladly do 
it if he had the power, but that the Persian forces on 
the whole coast, both naval and military, were under 
the command of Artaphernes at Sardis. He said, 
however, that he was on very friendly terms with 
Artaphernes, and that he would, if the Naxians de- 
sired it, apply to him for his aid. The Naxians 
seemed very grateful for the interest which Aristagoras 
took in their cause, and said that they would commit 
the whole affair to his charge. 

There was, however, much less occasion for grat- 



196 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

itude than there seemed, for Aristagoras was very 
far from being honest and sincere in his offers of 
aid. He perceived, immediately on hearing the fugi- 
tives' story, that a very favorable opportunity was 
opening for him to add Naxos, and perhaps even the 
neighboring islands, to his own government. It is 
always a favorable opportunity to subjugate a people 
when their power of defense and of resistance is 
neutralized by dissensions with one another. It is a 
device as old as the history of mankind, and one re- 
sorted to now as often as ever, for ambitious neigh- 
bors to interpose in behalf of the weaker party, in a 
civil war waged in a country which they wish to 
make their own, and, beginning with a war against 
a part, to end by subjugating the whole. This was 
Aristagoras's plan. He proposed it to Artaphernes, 
representing to him that a very favorable occasion 
had occurred for bringing the Greek islands of the 
/Egean Sea under the Persian dominion. Naxos once 
possessed, all the other islands around it would fol- 
low, he said, and a hundred ships would make the 
conquest sure. 

Artaphernes entered very readily and very warmly 
into the plan. He said that he would furnish two 
hundred instead of one hundred galleys. He thought 
it was necessary, however, first to consult Darius, 
since the affair was one of such importance; and be- 
sides, it was not best to commence the undertaking 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTI^US 197 

until the spring. He would immediately send a mes- 
senger to Darius to ascertain his pleasure, and, in the 
mean time, as he did not doubt that Darius would 
fully approve of the plan, he would have all necessary 
preparations made, so that every thing should be in 
readiness as soon as the proper season for active 
operations should arrive. 

Artaphernes was right in anticipating his brother's 
approval of the design. The messenger returned from 
Susa with full authority from the king for the exe- 
cution of the project. The ships were built and 
equipped, and every thing was made ready for the 
expedition. The intended destination of the arma- 
ment was, however, kept a profound secret, as the 
invaders wished to surprise the people of Naxos when 
off their guard. Aristagoras was to accompany the 
expedition as its general leader, while an officer 
named Megabates, appointed by Artaphernes for this 
purpose, was to take command of the fleet as a sort 
of admiral. Thus there were two commanders — an 
arrangement which almost always, in such cases, leads 
to a quarrel. It is a maxim in war that one bad 
general is better than two good ones. 

The expedition sailed from Miletus; and, in order 
to prevent the people of Naxos from being apprised 
of their danger, the report had been circulated that 
its destination was to be the Hellespont. Accordingly, 
when the fleet sailed, it turned its course to the 



i 9 8 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

northward, as If it were really going to the Helles- 
pont. The plan o( the commander was to step after 
proceeding a short distance, and then to seize the 
tirst opportunity afforded by a wind from the north 

to come down suddenly upon Naxos. before the pop- 
ulation should have time to prepare tor defense. Ac- 
cordingly, when they arrived opposite the island o( 
Chios, the whole tleet came to anchor near the land. 
The ships were all ordered to be ready, at a mo- 
ment's warning, for setting sail; and. thus situated, 
the commanders were waiting for the wind to change. 
Megabates. in going his rounds among the tleet 
while things were in this condition, found one vessel 
entirely abandoned. The captain and crew had all 
left it, and had gone ashore. They were not aware. 
probably, how urgent was the necessity that they 
should be every moment at their posts. The captain 
of this galley was a native of a small town called 
Cnidus, and. as it happened, was a particular friend 
of Aristagoras. His name was Syclax. Megabates, as 
the commander of the tleet, was very much incensed 
at finding one o\' his subordinate officers so derelict 
in duty. He sent his guards in pursuit o\~ him; and 
when Syclax was brought to his ship. Megabates or- 
dered his head to be thrust out through one of the 
small port-holes intended for the oars, in the side o( 
the ship, and then bound him in that position, — his 
head appearing thus to view, in the sight of all the 



B.C. 504] STORY Or HJSTJ/hl [99 

fleet, while his body remained within the vessel. "I 
am going to keep him at hi-, post," said Megal 
"and in such a way that every one can see that, he 
is there.' ' 

Aristagoras was much distressed at seeing his 
friend suffering so severe and disgraceful a punish- 
ment. He went to Megabates and requested the re- 
lease of the prisoner, giving, at the same time, what 
he considered satisfactory reasons for his having been 
absent from his vessel. Megabates, however, was 
not satisfied, and refused to set Syclax at liberty. 
Aristagoras then told Megabates that he mistook his 
position in supposing that he was master of the ex- 
pedition, and could tyrannize over the men in that 
manner, as he pleased. "I v/ill have you under- 
stand," said he, "that I am the commander in this 
campaign, and that Artaphernes, in making you the 
sailing-master of the fleet, had no intention that you 
should set up your authority over mine." So saying, 
he went away in a rage, and released Syclax from 
his durance with his own hands. 

It was now the turn of Megabates to be enraged. 
He determined to defeat the expedition. He sent im- 
mediately a secret messenger to warn the Naxians of 
their enemies' approach. The Naxians immediately 
made effectual preparations to defend themselves. 
The end of it was, that when the fleet arrived, the 
island was prepared to receive it, and nothing could 



200 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

be done. Aristagoras continued the siege four months; 
but inasmuch as, during all this time, Megabates did 
every thing in his power to circumvent and thwart 
every plan that Aristagoras formed, nothing was ac- 
complished. Finally, the expedition was broken up, 
and Aristagoras returned home, disappointed and cha- 
grined, all his hopes blasted, and his own private 
finances thrown into confusion by the great pecuniary 
losses which he himself had sustained. He had con- 
tributed very largely, from his own private funds, in 
fitting out the expedition, fully confident of success, 
and of ample reimbursement for his expenses as the 
consequence of it. 

He was angry with himself, and angry with Meg- 
abates, and angry with Artaphernes. He presumed, 
too, that Megabates would denounce him to Arta- 
phernes, and, through him, to Darius, as the cause of 
the failure of the expedition. A sudden order might 
come at any moment, directing that he should be 
beheaded. He began to consider the expediency of 
revolting from the Persian power, and making com- 
mon cause with the Greeks against Darius. The 
danger of such a step was scarcely less than that of 
remaining as he was. While he was pondering these 
momentous questions in his mind, he was led sud- 
denly to a decision by a very singular circumstance, 
the proper explaining of which requires the story to 
return, for a time, to Histiseus at Susa. 



B.C. 504] STORY OF HISTIiEUS 201 

Histiaeus was very ill at ease in the possession of 
his forced elevation and grandeur at Susa. He en- 
joyed great distinction there, it is true, and a life of 
ease and luxury, but he wished for independence and 
authority. He was, accordingly, very desirous to get 
back to his former sphere of activity and power in 
Asia Minor. After revolving in his mind the various 
plans which occurred to him for accomplishing this 
purpose, he at last decided on inducing Aristagoras 
to revolt in Ionia, and then attempting to persuade 
Darius to send him on to quell the revolt. When 
once in Asia Minor, he would join the rebellion, and 
bid Darius defiance. 

The first thing to be done was to contrive some 
safe and secret way to communicate with Aristagoras. 
This he effected in the following manner: There was 
a man in his court who was afflicted with some 
malady of the eyes. Histiseus told him that if he 
would put himself under his charge he could effect a 
cure. It would be necessary, he said, that the man 
should have his head shaved and scarified; that is, 
punctured with a sharp instrument, previously dipped 
in some medicinal compound. Then, after some fur- 
ther applications should have been made, it would be 
necessary for the patient to go to Ionia, in Asia Minor, 
where there was a physician who would complete 
the cure. 

The patient consented to this proposal. The head 



ao2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

was shaved, and Histiaeus, while pretending to scarify 
it, pricked into the skin — as sailors tattoo anchors on 
their arms — by means of a needle and a species of 
ink which had probably no great medicinal virtue, 
the words of a letter to Aristagoras, in which he 
communicated to him fully, though very concisely, 
the particulars of his plan. He urged Aristagoras to 
revolt, and promised that, if he would do so, he 
would come on, himself, as soon as possible, and, 
under pretense of marching to suppress the rebellion, 
he would really join and aid it. 

As soon as he had finished pricking this treason- 
able communication into the patient's skin, he care- 
fully enveloped the head in bandages, which, he said, 
must on no account be disturbed. He kept the man 
shut up, besides, in the palace, until the hair had 
grown, so as effectually to conceal the writing, and 
then sent him to Ionia to have the cure perfected. 
On his arrival at Ionia he was to find Aristagoras, 
who would do what further was necessary. Histiaeus 
contrived, in the mean time, to send word to Aristag- 
oras by another messenger, that, as soon as such a 
patient should present himself, Aristagoras was to 
shave his head. He did so, and the communication 
appeared. We must suppose that the operations on 
the part of Aristagoras for the purpose of completing 
the cure consisted, probably, in pricking in more ink, 
so as to confuse and obliterate the writing. 



B.C. 504] STORY OF POSTICUS 203 

Aristagoras was on the eve of throwing off the 
Persian authority when he received this communica- 
tion. It at once decided him to proceed. He organ- 
ized his forces and commenced his revolt. As soon 
as the news of this rebellion reached Susa, Histiaeus 
feigned great indignation, and earnestly entreated 
Darius to commission him to go and suppress it. He 
was confident, he said, that he could do it in a very 
prompt and effectual manner. Darius was at first in- 
clined to suspect that Histiaeus was in some way or 
other implicated in the movement; but these suspi- 
cions were removed by the protestations which His- 
tiaeus made, and at length he gave him leave to pro- 
ceed to Miletus, commanding him, however, to return 
to Susa again as soon as he should have suppressed 
the revolt. 

When Histiaeus arrived in Ionia he joined Aristag- 
oras, and the two generals, leaguing with them vari- 
ous princes and states of Greece, organized a very 
extended and dangerous rebellion, which it gave the 
troops of Darius infinite trouble to subdue. We can 
hot here give an account of the incidents and particu- 
lars of this war. For a time the rebels prospered, 
and their cause seemed likely to succeed; but at 
length the tide turned against them. Their towns 
were captured, their ships were taken and destroyed, 
their armies cut to pieces. Histiaeus retreated from 
place to place, a wretched fugitive, growing more and 



20 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 504 

more distressed and destitute every day. At length, 
as he was flying from a battle field, he arrested the 
arm of a Persian who was pursuing him with his 
weapon upraised, by crying out that he was Histiaeus 
the Milesian. The Persian, hearing this, spared his 
life, but took him prisoner, and delivered him to Ar- 
taphernes. Histiseus begged very earnestly that Arta- 
phernes would send him to Darius alive, in hopes 
that Darius j would pardon him in consideration of his 
former services at the bridge of the Danube. This 
was, however, exactly what Artaphernes wished to 
prevent; so he crucified the wretched Histiseus at Sar- 
dis, and then packed his head in salt and sent it to 
Darius. 




CHAPTER XI. 

The Invasion of Greece and the Battle of 
Marathon. 

Great battles.— Progress of the Persian empire. — Condition of the Persian 
empire.— Plans of Darius. — Persian power iu Thrace. — Attempted nego- 
tiation with Macedon. — The seven commissioners. — Their rudeness at 
the feast. — Stratagem of Amyntas's son. — The commissioners killed. — 
Artifice of the prince. — Darius's anger against the Athenians. — Civil 
dissensions in Greece. — The tyrants. — Periander. — His message to a 
neighboring potentate. — Periander's intolerable tyranny. — His wife 
Melissa. — The ghost of Melissa. — A great sacrifice. — The reason of Peri- 
ander's rudeness to the assembly of females.— Labda the cripple. — Pre- 
diction in respect to her progeny. — Conspiracy to destroy I,abda's child. 

— Its failure. — The child secreted. — Fulfillment of the oracle. — Hippias 
of Athens. — His barbarous cruelty. — Hippias among the Persians. — 
Wars between the Grecian states. — Quarrel between Athens and iEgina. 

— The two wooden statues. — Incursion of the iEginetans. — They carry 
off the statues. — Attempt to recover the statues. — They fall upon their 
knees. — The Athenian fugitive. — He is murdered by the women. — The 
Persian army. — Its commander, Datis.— Sailing of the fleet. — Various 
conquests.— landing of the Persians. — State of Athens. — The Greek 
army. — Miltiades and his colleagues. — Position of the armies. — Mil- 
tiades's plan of attack.— Onset of the Greeks. — Rout of the Persians. — 
Results of the battle.— Numbers slain.— The field of Marathon.— The 
mound.— Song of the Greek. 

IN the history of a great military conqueror, there 
seems to be often some one great battle which 
in importance and renown eclipses all the rest. 
In the case of Hannibal it was the battle of Cannae, 
in that of Alexander the battle of Arbela. Caesar's 

great conflict was at Pharsalia, Napoleon's at Water- 

(205) 



206 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 512 

loo. Marathon was, in some respects, Darius's 
Waterloo. The place is a beautiful plain, about 
twelve miles north of the great city of Athens. 
The battle was the great final contest between Da- 
rius and the Greeks, which, both on account of the 
awful magnitude of the conflict, and the very extraor- 
dinary circumstances which attended it, has always 
been greatly celebrated among mankind. 

The whole progress of the Persian empire, from 
the time of the first accession of Cyrus to the throne, 
was toward the westward, till it reached the confines 
of Asia on the shores of the ^gean Sea. All the 
shores and islands of this sea were occupied by the 
states and the cities of Greece. The population of 
the whole region, both on the European and Asiatic 
shores, spoke the same language, and possessed the 
same vigorous, intellectual, and elevated character. 
Those on the Asiatic side had been conquered by 
Cyrus, and their countries had been annexed to the 
Persian empire. Darius had wished very strongly, at 
the commencement of his reign, to go on in this 
work of annexation and had sent his party of com- 
missioners to explore the ground, as is related in a 
preceding chapter. He had, however, postponed the 
execution of his plans, in order first to conquer the 
Scythian countries north of Greece, thinking, probably, 
that this would make the subsequent conquest of 
Greece itself more easy. By getting a firm foothold 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE 207 

in Scythia, he would, as it were, turn the flank of 
the Grecian territories, which would tend to make 
his final descent upon them more effectual and sure. 

This plan, however, failed ; and yet, on his retreat 
from Scythia, Darius did not withdraw his armies 
wholly from the European side of the water. He 
kept a large force in Thrace, and his generals there 
were gradually extending and strengthening their 
power, and preparing for still greater conquests. They 
attempted to extend their dominion, sometimes by 
negotiations, and sometimes by force, and they were 
successful and unsuccessful by turns, whichever mode 
they employed. 

One very extraordinary story is told of an attempted 
negotiation with Macedon, made with a view of bring- 
ing that kingdom, if possible, under the Persian do- 
minion, without 'the necessity of a resort to force. 
The commanding general of Darius's armies in Thrace, 
whose name, as was stated in the last chapter, was 
Megabyzus, sent seven Persian officers into Macedon, 
not exactly to summon the Macedonians, in a per- 
emptory manner, to surrender to the Persians, nor, on 
the other hand, to propose a voluntary alliance, but 
for something between the two. The communication 
was to be in the form of a proposal, and yet it was 
to be made in the domineering and overbearing man- 
ner with which the tyrannical and the strong often 
make proposals to the weak and defenseless. 



2o8 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 512 

The seven Persians went to Macedon, which was 
west of Thrace, and to the northward of the other 
Grecian countries. Amyntas, the king of Macedon, gave 
them a very honorable reception. At length, one day, at 
a feast to which they were invited in the palace of 
Amyntas, they became somewhat excited with wine, and 
asked to have the ladies of the court brought in to the 
apartment. They wished "to see them," they said. 
Amyntas replied that such a procedure was entirely 
contrary to the usages and customs of their court; 
but still, as he stood somewhat in awe of his visitors, 
or, rather, of the terrible power which the delegation 
represented, and wished by every possible means to 
avoid provoking a quarrel with them, he consented to 
comply with their request. The ladies were sent for. 
They came in, reluctant and blushing, their minds ex- 
cited by mingled feelings of indignation and shame. 

The Persians, becoming more and more excited 
and imperious under the increasing influence of the 
wine, soon began to praise the beauty of these new 
guests in a coarse and free manner, which over- 
whelmed the ladies with confusion, and then to ac- 
cost them familiarly and rudely, and to behave toward 
them, in other respects, with so much impropriety as 
to produce great alarm and indignation among all the 
king's household. The king himself was much dis- 
tressed, but he was afraid to act decidedly. His son, 
a young man of great energy and spirit, approached 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE 209 

his father with a countenance and manner expressive 
of high excitement, and begged him to retire from 
the feast, and leave him, the son, to manage the af- 
fair. Amyntas reluctantly allowed himself to be per- 
suaded to go, giving his son many charges, as he 
went away, to do nothing rashly or violently. As 
soon as the king was gone, the prince made an ex- 
cuse for having the ladies retire for a short time, 
saying that they should soon return. The prince con- 
ducted them to their aparment, and then selecting an 
equal number of tall and smooth-faced boys, he dis- 
guised them to represent the ladies, and gave each 
one a dagger, directing him to conceal it beneath his 
robe. These counterfeit females were then introduced 
to the assembly in the place of those who had re- 
tired. The Persians did not detect the deception. It 
was evening, and, besides, their faculties were con- 
fused with the effects of the wine. They approached 
the supposed ladies as they had done before, with 
rude familiarity; and the boys, at a signal made by 
the prince when the Persians were wholly :>ff their 
guard, stabbed and killed every one of them on the 
spot. 

Megabyzus sent an embassador to inquire what 
became of his seven messengers; but the Macedonian 
prince contrived to buy this messenger off by large 
rewards, and to induce him to send back some false 
but plausible story to satisfy Megabyzus. Perhaps 

M. ofK.— 17— 14 



no DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 51a 

Megabyzus would not have been so easily satisfied 
had it not been that the great Ionian rebellion, under 
Aristagoras and Histiseus, as described in the last 
chapter, broke out soon after, and demanded his at- 
tention in another quarter of the realm. 

The Ionian rebellion postponed, for a time, Dari- 
us's designs on Greece, but the effect of it was to 
make the invasion more certain and more terrible in 
the end; for Athens, which was at that time one of 
the most important and powerful of the Grecian 
cities, took a part in that rebellion against the Per- 
sians. The Athenians sent forces to aid those of Ar- 
istagoras and Histiseus, and, in the course of the war, 
the combined army took and burned the city of Sar- 
dis. When this news reached Darius, he was excited 
to a perfect phrensy of resentment and indignation 
against the Athenians for coming thus into his own 
dominions to assist rebels, and there destroying one 
of his most important capitals. He uttered the most 
violent and terrible threats against them, and, to pre- 
vent his c-nger from getting cool before the prepara- 
tions should be completed for vindicating it, he made 
an arrangement, it was said, for having a slave call 
out to him every day at table, "Remember the 
Athenians!" 

It was a circumstance favorable to Darius's designs 
against the states of Greece that they were not united 
among themselves. There was no general government 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE dii 

under which the whole naval and military force of 
that country could be efficiently combined, so as to 
be directed, in a concentrated and energetic form, 
against a common enemy. On the other hand, the 
several cities formed, with the territories adjoining 
them, so many separate states, more or less con- 
nected, it is true, by confederations and alliances, but 
still virtually independent, and often hostile to each 
other. Then, besides these external and international 
quarrels, there was a great deal of internal dissension. 
The monarchical and the democratic principle were 
all the time struggling for the mastery. Military 
despots were continually rising to power in the vari- 
ous cities and after they had ruled, for a time, over 
their subjects with a rod of iron, the people would 
rise in rebellion and expel them from their thrones. 
These revolutions were continually taking place, at- 
tended, often, by the strangest and most romantic 
incidents, which evinced, on the part of the actors in 
them, that extraordinary combination of mental sagacity 
and acumen with childish and senseless superstition so 
characteristic of the times. 

It is not surprising that the populace often rebelled 
against the power of these royal despots, for they 
seem to have exercised their power, when their in- 
terests or their passions excited them to do it, in the 
most tyrannical and cruel manner. One of them, it 
was said, a king of Corinth, whose name was Perian- 



2i2 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 512 

der, sent a messenger, on one occasion, to a neigh- 
boring potentate, with whom he had gradually come 
to entertain very friendly relations, to inquire by what 
means he could most certainly and permanently secure 
the continuance of his power. The king thus applied 
to gave no direct reply, but took the messenger out 
into his garden, talking with him by the way about 
the incidents of his journey, and other indifferent 
topics. He came, at length, to a field where grain 
was growing, and as he walked along, he occupied 
himself in cutting off, with his sword, every head of 
the grain which raised itself above the level of the 
rest. After a short time he returned to the house, and 
finally dismissed the messenger without giving him any 
answer whatever to the application that he had made. 
The messenger returned to Periander, and related what 
had occurred. "I understand his meaning," said 
Periander. "I must contrive some way to remove all 
those who, by their talents, their influence, or their 
power, rise about the general level of the citizens." 
Periander began immediately to act on this recommen- 
dation. Whoever, among the people of Corinth, dis- 
tinguished himself above the rest, was marked for 
destruction. Some were banished, some were slain, 
and some were deprived of their influence, and so re- 
duced to the ordinary level, by the confiscation of 
their property, the lives and fortunes of all the citizens 
of the state being wholly in the despot's hands. 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE 213 

This same Periander had a wife whose name was 
Melissa. A very extraordinary tale is related respect- 
ing her, which, though mainly fictitious, had a founda- 
tion, doubtless, in fact, and illustrates very remarkably 
the despotic tyranny and the dark superstition of the 
times. Melissa died and was buried; but her gar- 
ments, for some reason or other, were not burned, 
as was usual in such cases. Now, among the other 
oracles of Greece, there was one where departed 
spirits could be consulted. It was called the oracle 
of the dead. Periander, having occasion to consult 
an oracle in order to find the means of recovering a 
certain article of value which was lost, sent to this 
place to call up and consult the ghost of Melissa. 
The ghost appeared, but refused to answer the ques- 
tion put to her, saying, with frightful solemnity, 

"I am cold; I am cold; I am naked and cold. My 
clothes were not burned; I am naked and cold." 

When this answer was reported to Periander, he 
.determined to make a great sacrifice and offering, 
such as should at once appease the restless spirit. He 
invited, therefore, a general assembly of the women 
of Corinth to witness some spectacle in a temple, and 
when they were convened, he surrounded them with 
his guards, seized them, stripped them of most of their 
clothing, and then let them go free. The clothes thus 
taken were then all solemnly burned, as an expiatory 
offering, with invocations to the shade of Melissa. 



2i 4 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 512 

The account adds, that when this was done, a 
second messenger was dispatched to the oracle of 
the dead, and the spirit, now clothed and comfortable 
in its grave, answered the inquiry, informing Peri- 
ander where the lost article might be found. 

The rude violence which Periander resorted to in 
this case seems not to have been dictated by any 
particular desire to insult or injure the women of 
Corinth, but was resorted to simply as the easiest 
and most convenient way of obtaining what he 
needed. He wanted a supply of valuable and costly 
female apparel, and the readiest mode of obtaining it 
was to bring together an assembly of females dressed 
for a public occasion, and then disrobe them. The 
case only shows to what an extreme and absolute 
supremacy the lofty and domineering spirit of ancient 
despotism attained. 

It ought, however, to be related, in justice to 
these abominable tyrants, that they often evinced 
feelings of commiseration and kindness; sometimes, 
in fact, in very singular ways. There was, for ex- 
ample, in one of the cities, a certain family that had 
obtained the ascendency over the rest of the people, 
and had held it for some time as an established aris- 
tocracy, taking care to preserve their rank and 
power from generation to generation by intermarry- 
ing only with one another. At length, in one branch 
of the family there grew up a young girl named 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE 215 

Labda, who had been a cripple from her birth, and, 
on account of her deformity, none of the nobles 
would marry her. A man of obscure, birth, however, 
one of the common people, at length took her for his 
wife. His name was Eetion. One day, Eetion went 
to Delphi to consult an oracle, and as he was enter- 
ing the temple, the Pythian * called out to him, say- 
ing that a stone should proceed from Labda which 
should overwhelm tyrants and usurpers, and free the 
state. The nobles, when they heard of this, under- 
stood the prediction to mean that the destruction of 
their power was, in some way or other, to be 
effected by means of Labda's child, and they deter- 
mined to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy by 
destroying the babe itself so soon as it should be 
born. 

They accordingly appointed ten of their number 
to go to the place where Eetion lived and kill the 
child. The method which they were to adopt was 
this: They were to ask to see the infant on their ar- 
rival at the house, and then it was agreed that 
whichever of the ten it was to whom the babe was 
handed, he should dash it down upon the stone floor 
with all his force, by which means it would, as they 
supposed, certainly be killed. 

This plan being arranged, the men went to the 



* For a full account of these oracles, see the history of Cyrus the 
Great. 



2i6 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 512 

house, inquired, with hypocritical civility, alter the 
health of the mother, and desired to see the child. It 
was accordingly brought to them. The mother put 
it into the hands of one of the conspirators, and the 
babe looked up into his lace and smiled. This mute 
expression of defenseless and confiding innocence 
touched the murderer's heart. He could not be such 
a monster as to dash such an image of trusting and 
happv helplessness upon the stones. He looked upon 
the child, and then gave it into the hands of the one 
next to him. and he gave it to the next, and thus it 
passed through the hands of all the ten. No one was 
found stern and determined enough to murder it. and 
at last they gave the babe back to its mother and 
went away. 

The sequel of this story was. that the conspira- 
tors, when they reached the gate, stopped to consult 
together, and after many mutual criminations and re- 
criminations, each impugning the courage and reso- 
lution of the rest, and all joining in special condem- 
nation of the man to whom the child had at first 
been given, they went back again, determined, in 
some way or other, to accomplish their purpose. 
But Labda had. in the mean time, been alarmed at 
their extraordinary behavior, and had listened, when 
they stopped at the gate, to hear their conversation. 
She hastily hid the babe in a corn measure; and the 
conspirators, after looking in every part of the house 



B.C. 512] INVASION OF GREECE 217 

in 'vain, gave up the search, supposing that their in- 
tended victim had been hastily sent away. They 
went home, and not being willing to acknowledge 
that their resolution had failed at the time of trial, 
they agreed to say that their undertaking had suc- 
ceeded, and that the child had been destroyed. The 
babe lived, however, and grew up to manhood, and 
then, in fulfillment of the prediction announced by 
the oracle, he headed a rebellion against the nobles, 
deposed them from their power, and reigned in their 
stead. 

One of the worst and most reckless of the Greek 
tyrants of whom we have been speaking was Hip- 
pias of Athens. His father, Pisistratus, had been 
hated all his life for his cruelties and his crimes; and 
when he died, leaving two sons, Hippias and Hippar- 
chus, a conspiracy was formed to kill the sons, and 
thus put an end to the dynasty. Hipparchus was 
killed, but Hippias escaped the danger, and seized the 
government himself alone. He began to exercise his 
power in the most cruel and wanton manner, partly 
under the influence of resentment and passion, and 
partly because he thought his proper policy was to 
strike terror into the hearts of the people as a means 
of retaining his dominion. One of the conspirators by 
whom his brother had been slain, accused Hippias's 
warmest and best friends as his accomplices in that 
deed in order to revenge himself on Hippias by in- 



ai8 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 510 

during him to destroy his own adherents and sup- 
porters. Hippias fell into the snare; he condemned 

to death all whom the conspirator accused, and his 
reckless soldiers executed his friends and toes to- 
gether. When any protested their innocence, he put 
them to the torture to make them confess their guilt. 
Sueh indiscriminate cruelly only had the effect to 
league the whole population of Athens against the 
perpetrator of it. There was at length a general in- 
surrection against him. and he was dethroned. He 
made his escape to Sardis, and there tendered his 
services to Artaphernes. offering to conduct the Per- 
sian armies to Greece, and aid them in getting pos- 
session o\' the country, on condition that, if they 
succeeded, the Persians would make him the gov- 
ernor o\' Athens. Artaphernes made known these 
offers to Darius, and they were eagerly accepted. It 
was. however, Very impolitic to accept them. The 
aid which the invaders could derive from the services 
Of such a guide, were far more than counterbalanced 
by the influence which his defection and the espousal 
of his cause by the Persians would produce in Greece. 
It banded the Athenians and their allies together in 
the most enthusiastic and determined spirit of resist- 
ance, against a man who had now added the base- 
ness of treason to the wanton wickedness of tyranny. 
Besides these internal dissensions between the 
people ot the several Grecian states and their kings, 



B.C. 500I INVASION OF GREECE 219 

there were contests between one state and another, 
which iJarius proposed to take advantage of in his 
attempts to conquer the country. There was one 
such war in particular, between Athens and the island 
of /Hgina, on the effects of which, in aiding him in 
his operations against the Athenians, Darius placed 
great reliance. /Hgina was a large and populous is- 
land not far from Athens. In accounting for the ori- 
gin of the quarrel between the two States, the Greek 
historians relate the following marvelous story: 

./Egina was situated in the middle of the bay, 
southwest from Athens. On the other side of the bay, 
opposite from Athens, there was a city, near the shore, 
called Epidaurus. It happened that the people of 
Hpidaurus were at one time suffering from famine, and 
they sent a messenger to the oracle at Delphi to inquire 
what they should do to obtain relief. The Pythian 
answered that they must erect two statues to certain 
goddesses, named Damia and Auxesia, and that then 
the famine would abate. They asked whether they 
were to make the statues of brass or of marble. The 
priestess replied, "Of neither, but of wood." They 
were, she said, to use for the purpose the wood of the 
garden olive. 

This species of olive was a sacred tree*, and it hap- 
pened that, at this time, there were no trees of the 
kind that were of sufficient size for the purpose in- 



220 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 500 

tended except at Athens; and the Epidaurians, ac- 
cordingly, sent to Athens to obtain leave to supply 
themselves with wood for the sculptor by cutting down 
one of the trees from the sacred grove. The Athenians 
consented to this, on condition that the Epidaurians 
would offer a certain yearly sacrifice at two temples 
in Athens, which they named. This sacrifice, they 
seemed to imagine, would make good to the city 
whatever of injury their religious interests might suffer 
from the loss of the sacred tree. The Epidaurians 
agreed to the condition; the tree was felled; blocks 
from it, of proper size, were taken to Epidaurus, and 
the statues were carved. They were set up in the 
city with the usual solemnities, and the famine soon 
after disappeared. 

Not many years after this, a war, for some cause 
or other, broke out between Epidaurus and /Egina. 
The people of JEgina crossed the water in a fleet of 
galleys, landed at Epidaurus, and, after committing 
various ravages, they seized these images, and bore 
them away in triumph as trophies of their victory. 
They set them up in a public place in the middle of 
their own island, and instituted games and spectacles 
around them, which they celebrated with great fes- 
tivity and parade. The Epidaurians, having thus lost 
their statues, ceased to make the annual offering at 
Athens which they had stipulated for, in return for 
receiving the wood from which the statues were 



B.C. 500] INVASION OF GREECE 221 

carved. The Athenians complained. The Epidaurians 
replied that they had continued to make the offering 
as long as they had kept the statues; but that now, 
the statues being in other hands, they were absolved 
from the obligation. The Athenians next demanded 
the statues themselves of the people of /Egina. They 
refused to surrender them. The Athenians then in- 
vaded the island, and proceeded to the spot where 
the statues had been erected. They had been set up 
on massive and heavy pedestals. The Athenians at- 
tempted to get them down, but could not separate 
them from their fastenings. They then changed their 
plan, and undertook to move the pedestals too, by 
dragging them with ropes. They were arrested in 
this undertaking by an earthquake, accompanied by a 
solemn and terrible sound of thunder, which warned 
them that they were provoking the anger of Heaven. 

The statues, too, miraculously fell on their knees, 
and remained fixed in that posture! 

The Athenians, terrified at these portentous signs, 
abandoned their undertaking and fled toward the 
shore. They were, however, intercepted by the peo- 
ple of /Egina, and some allies whom they had has- 
tily summoned to their aid, and the whole party was 
destroyed except one single man. He escaped. 

This single fugitive, however, met with a worse 
fate than that of his comrades. He went to Athens, 
and there the wives and sisters of the men who had 



122 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 500 

been killed thronged around him to hear his story. 
They were incensed that he alone had escaped, as if 
his flight had been a sort of betrayal and desertion of 
his companions. They fell upon him, therefore, with 
one accord, and pierced and wounded him on all 
sides with a sort of pin, or clasp, which they used 
as a fastening for their dress. They finally killed him. 

The Athenian magistrates were unable to bring 
any of the perpetrators of this crime to conviction 
and punishment; but a law was made, in consequence 
of the occurrence, forbidding the use of that sort of 
fastening for the dress to all the Athenian women 
forever after. The people of /Egina, on the other 
hand, rejoiced and gloried in the deed of the Athe- 
nian women, and they made the clasps which were 
worn upon their island of double size, in honor of it. 

The war, thus commenced between Athens and 
y^Egina, went on for a long time, increasing in bitter- 
ness and cruelty as the injuries increased in number 
and magnitude which the belligerent parties inflicted 
on each other. 

Such was the state of things in Greece when Da- 
rius organized his great expedition for the invasion 
of the country. He assembled an immense armament, 
though he did not go forth himself to command it. 
He placed the whole force under the charge of a 
Persian general named Datis. A considerable part of 
the army which Datis was to command was raised in 



B.C. 491] INVASION OF GREECE 223 

Persia; but orders had been sent on that large acces- 
sions to the army, consisting of cavalry, foot soldiers, 
ships, and seamen, and every other species of military 
force, should be raised in all the provinces of Asia 
Minor, and be ready to join it at various places of 
rendezvous. 

Darius commenced his march at Susa with the 
troops which had been collected there, and proceeded 
westward till he reached the Mediterranean at Cilicia, 
which is at the northeast corner of that sea. Here 
large re-enforcements joined him; and there was also 
assembled at this point an immense fleet of galleys, 
which had been provided to convey the troops to the 
Grecian seas. The troops embarked, and the fleet 
advanced along the southern shores of Asia Minor to 
the /Egean Sea, where they turned to the northward 
toward the island of Samos, which had been appointed 
as a rendezvous. At Samos they were joined by still 
greater numbers coming from Ionia, and the various 
provinces and islands on that coast that were already 
under the Persian dominion. When they were ready 
for their final departure, the immense fleet, probably 
one of the greatest and most powerful which had 
then ever been assembled, set sail, and steered their 
course to the northwest, among the islands of the 
/Egean Sea. As they moved slowly on, they stopped 
to take possession of such islands as came in their 
way. The islanders, in some cases, submitted to 



iiAr DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

them without a struggle. In others, they made vig- 
orous but perfectly futile attempts to resist. In others 
still, the terrified inhabitants abandoned their homes, 
and fled in dismay to the fastnesses of the mountains. 
The Persians destroyed the cities and towns whose 
inhabitants they could not conquer, and took the 
children from the most influential families of the is- 
lands which they did subdue, as hostages to hold 
their parents to their promises when their conquerors 
should have gone. 

The mighty fleet advanced thus, by slow degrees, 
from conquest to conquest, toward the Athenian 
shores. The vast multitude of galleys covered the 
whole surface of the water, and as they advanced, 
propelled each by a triple row of oars, they exhibited 
to the fugitives who had gained the summits of the 
mountains the appearance of an immense swarm of 
insects, creeping, by an almost imperceptible advance, 
over the smooth expanse of the sea. 

The fleet, guided all the time by Hippias, passed 
on, and finally entered the strait between the island 
of Eubcea and the main land to the northward of 
Athens. Here, after some operations on the island, 
the Persians finally brought their ships into a port on 
the Athenian side, and landed. Hippias made all 
the arrangements, and superintended the disembarka- 
tion. 

In the mean time, all was confusion and dismay 



B.C. 490] INVASION OF GREECE 225 

in the city of Athens. The government, as soon as 
they heard of the approach of this terrible danger, 
had sent an express to the city of Sparta, asking for 
aid. The aid had been promised, but it had not yet 
arrived. The Athenians gathered together all the 
forces at their command on the northern side of the 
city, and were debating the question, with great anx- 
iety and earnestness, whether they should shut them- 
selves up within the walls, and await the onset of 
their enemies there, or go forth to meet them on the 
way. The whole force which the Greeks could mus- 
ter consisted of but about ten thousand men, while the 
Persian host contained over a hundred thousand. It 
seemed madness to engage in a contest on an open 
field against such an overwhelming disparity of num- 
bers. A majority of voices were, accordingly, in favor 
of remaining within the fortifications of the city, and 
awaiting an attack. 

The command of the army had been intrusted, not 
to one man, but to a commission of three generals, a 
sort of triumvirate, on whose joint action the decision 
of such a question devolved. Two of the three were 
in favor of taking a defensive position; but the third, 
the celebrated Miltiades, was so earnest and so de- 
cided in favor of attacking the enemy themselves, in- 
stead of waiting to be attacked, that his opinion 
finally carried the day, and the other generals resigned 
their portion of authority into his hands, consenting 

M. of H.— 17— 15 



226 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

that he should lead the Greek army, into battle, if he 
dared to take the responsibility of doing so. 

The two armies were at this time encamped in 
sight of each other on the plain of Marathon, between 
the mountain and the sea. They were nearly a mile 
apart. The countless multitude of the Persians ex- 
tended as far as the eye could reach, with long lines 
of tents in the distance, and thousands of horsemen 
on the plain, all ready for the charge. The Greeks, 
on the other hand, occupied a small and isolated spot, 
in a compact form, without cavalry, without archers, 
without, in fact, any weapons suitable either for at- 
tack or defense, except in a close encounter hand to 
hand. Their only hope of success depended on the 
desperate violence of the onset they were to make 
upon the vast masses of men spread out before them. 
On the one side were immense numbers, whose force, 
vast as it was, must necessarily be more or less im- 
peded in its operations, and slow. It was to be over- 
powered, therefore, if overpowered at all, by the ut- 
most fierceness and rapidity of action — by sudden 
onsets, unexpected and furious assaults, and heavy, 
vigorous, and rapid blows. Miltiades, therefore, made 
all his arrangements with reference to that mode of 
warfare. Such soldiers as the Greeks, too, were ad- 
mirably adapted to execute such designs, and the im- 
mense and heterogeneous mass of Asiatic nations 
which covered the plain before them was exactly the 



B.C. 490] INVASION OF GREECE 227 

body for such an experiment to be made upon. 
Glorying in their numbers and confident of victory, 
they were slowly advancing, without the least idea 
that the little band before them could possibly do 
them any serious harm. They had actually brought 
with them, in the train of the army, some blocks 01 
marble, with which they were going' to erect a mon- 
ument of their victory, on the field of battle, as soon 
as the conflict was over! 

At length the Greeks began to put themselves in 
motion. As they advanced, they accelerated their 
march more and more, until just before reaching the 
Persian lines, when they began to run. The astonish- 
ment of the Persians at this unexpected and daring 
onset soon gave place, first to the excitement of per- 
sonal conflict, and then to universal terror and dis- 
may; for the headlong impetuosity of the Greeks bore 
down all opposition, and the desperate swordsmen 
cut their way through the vast masses of the enemy 
with a fierce and determined fury that nothing could 
withstand. Something like a contest continued for 
some hours; but, at the end of that time, the Per- 
sians were flying in all directions, every one endeav- 
oring, by the track which they found most practica- 
ble for himself, to make his way to the ships on the 
shore. Vast multitudes were killed in this headlong 
flight; others became entangled in the morasses and 
fens, and others still strayed away, and sought, in 



228 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

their terror, a hopeless refuge in the defiles of the 
mountains. Those who escaped crowded in confu- 
sion on board their ships, and pushed off from the 
shore, leaving the whole plain covered with their dead 
and dying companions. 

The Greeks captured an immense amount of stores 
and baggage, which were of great cost and value. 
They took possession, too, of the marble blocks 
which the Persians had brought to immortalize their 
victory, and built with them a monument, instead, to 
commemorate their defeat. They counted the dead. 
Six thousand Persians, and only two hundred Greeks, 
were found. The bodies of the Greeks were collected 
together, and buried on the field, and an immense 
mound was raised over the grave. This mound has 
continued to stand at Marathon to the present day. 

The battle of Marathon was one of those great 
events in the history of the human race which con- 
tinue to attract, from age to age, the admiration of 
mankind. They who look upon war, in all its forms, 
as only the perpetration of an unnatural and atrocious 
crime, which rises to dignity and grandeur only by 
the very enormity of its guilt, can not but respect 
the courage, the energy, and the cool and determined 
resolution with which the little band of Greeks went 
forth to stop the torrent of foes which all the nations 
of a whole continent had combined to pour upon 
them. The field has been visited in every age by 



B.C. 490] INVASION OF GREECE 229 

thousands of travelers, who have upon the spot offered 
their tribute of admiration to the ancient heroes that 
triumphed there. The plain is found now, as of old, 
overlooking the sea, and the mountains inland, tower- 
ing above the plain. The mound, too, still remains, 
which was reared to consecrate the memory of the 
Greeks who fell. They who visit it stand and survey 
the now silent and solitary scene, and derive from the 
influence and spirit of the spot new strength and en- 
ergy to meet the great difficulties and dangers of life 
which they themselves have to encounter. The 
Greeks themselves, of the present day, notwithstand- 
ing the many sources of discouragement and de- 
pression with which they have to contend, must feel 
at Marathon some rising spirit of emulation in con- 
templating the lofty mental powers and the undaunted 
spirit of their sires. Byron makes one of them sing, 

"The mountains look on Marathon, 

And Marathon looks on the sea; 
And musing there an hour alone, 

I dreamed that Greece might still be free; 
For, standing on the Persians' grave, 
I could not deem myself a slave." 




CHAPTER XII. 
The Death of Darius. 

The Persian fleet sails southward. — Fate of Hippias. — Omens. — The dream 
and the sneeze. — Hippias falls in battle. — Movements of the Persian 
fleet. — The Persian fleet returns to Asia. — Anxiety of Datis. — Datis finds 
a stolen statue. — Island of Delos. — Account of the sacred island. — Its 
present condition. — Disposition of the army. — Darius's reception of 
Datis. — Subsequent history of Miltiades. — His great popularity. — Milti- 
ades's influence at Athens. — His ambitious designs. — Island and city of 
Paros. — Appearance of the modern town. — Miltiades's proposition to 
the Athenians.— They accept it. — Miltiades marches against Paros. 

— Its resistance. — Miltiades is discouraged. — The captive priestess. 

— Miltiades's interview with the priestess. — Her instructions. — Milti- 
ades attempts to enter the temple of Ceres. — He dislocates a limb. — 
Miltiades returns to Athens. — He is impeached. — Miltiades is con- 
demned. — He dies of his wound. — The fine paid. — Proposed punishment 
of Timo. — Time saved by the Delphic oracle. — Another expedition 
against Greece. — Preparations. — Necessity for settling the succession. — 
Darius's two sons. — Their claim to the throne. — Xerxes declared heir 

— Death of Darius. — Character of Darius. — Ground of his renown. 

The city of Athens and the plain of Marathon are 
situated upon a peninsula. The principal port 
by which the city was ordinarily approached 
was on the southern shore of the peninsula, though 
the Persians had landed on the northern side. Of 
course, in their retreat from the field of battle, they 
fled to the north. When they were beyond the reach 
of their enemies and fairly at sea, they were at first 

somewhat perplexed to determine what to do. Datis 
(230) 



DEATH OF DARIUS 






B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 231 

was extremely unwilling to return to Darius with the 
news of such a defeat. On the other hand, there 
seemed but little hope of any other result if he were 
to attempt a second landing. 

Hippias, their Greek guide, was killed in the 
battle. He expected to be killed, for his mind, on 
the morning of the battle, was in a state of great de- 
spondency and dejection. Until that time he had felt 
a strong and confident expectation of success, but 
his feelings had then been very suddenly changed. 
His confidence had arisen from the influence of a 
dream, his dejection from a cause more frivolous still; 
so that he was equally irrational in his hope and in 
his despair. 

The omen which seemed to him to portend suc- 
cess to the enterprise in which he had undertaken to 
act as guide, was merely that he dreamed one night 
that he saw, and spent some time in company with, 
his mother. In attempting to interpret this dream in 
the morning, it seemed to him that Athens, his native 
city, was represented by his mother, and that the 
vision denoted that he was about to be restored to 
Athens again. He was extremely elated at this super- 
natural confirmation of his hopes, and would have 
gone into the battle certain of victory, had it not 
been that another circumstance occurred at the time 
of the landing to blast his hopes. He had, himself, 
the general charge of the disembarkation. He sta- 



232 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

tioned the ships at their proper places near the shore, 
and formed the men upon the beach as they landed. 
While he was thus engaged, standing on the sand, 
he suddenly sneezed. He was an old man, and his 
teeth — those that remained — were loose. One of 
them was thrown out in the act of sneezing, and it 
fell into the sand. Hippias was alarmed at this oc- 
currence, considering it a bad omen. He looked a 
long time for the tooth in vain, and then exclaimed 
that all was over. The joining of his tooth to his 
mother earth was the event to which his dream re- 
ferred, and there was now no hope of any further 
fulfillment of it. He went on mechanically, after this, 
in marshaling his men and preparing for battle, but 
his mind was oppressed with gloomy forebodings. 
He acted, in consequence, feebly and with indecision; 
and when the Greeks explored the field on the morn- 
ing after the battle, his body was found among the 
other mutilated and ghastly remains which covered 
the ground. 

As the Persian fleet moved, therefore, along the 
coast of Attica, they had no longer their former 
guide. They were still, however, very reluctant to 
leave the country. They followed the shore of the 
peninsula until they came to the promontory of Su- 
nium, which forms the southeastern extremity of it. 
They doubled this cape, and then followed the south- 
ern shore of the peninsula until they arrived at the 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 233 

point opposite to Athens on that side. In the mean 
time, however, the Spartan troops which had been 
sent for to aid the Athenians in the contest, but 
which had not arrived in time to take part in the 
battle, reached the ground; and the indications which 
the Persians observed, from the decks of their galleys, 
that the country was thoroughly aroused, and was 
every where ready to receive them, deterred them 
from making any further attempts to land. After 
lingering, therefore, a short time near the shore, the 
fleet directed its course again toward the coasts of 
Asia. 

The mind of Datis was necessarily very ill at ease. 
He dreaded the wrath of Darius; for despots are very 
prone to consider military failures as the worst of 
crimes. The expedition had not, however, been en- 
tirely a failure. Datis had conquered many of the 
Greek islands, and he had with him, on board his 
galleys, great numbers of prisoners, and a vast amount 
of plunder which he had obtained from them. Still, 
the greatest and most important of the objects which 
Darius had commissioned him to accomplish had 
been entirely defeated, and he felt, accordingly, no 
little anxiety in respect to the reception which he was 
to expect at Susa. 

One night he had a dream which greatly disturbed 
him. He awoke in the morning with an impression 
upon his mind, which he had derived from the 



234 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

dream, that some temple had been robbed by his sol- 
diers in the course of his expedition, and that the 
sacrilegious booty which had been obtained was con- 
cealed somewhere in the fleet. He immediately or- 
dered a careful search to be instituted, in which 
every ship was examined. At length they found, 
concealed in one of the galleys, a golden statue of 
Apollo. Datis inquired what city it had been taken 
from. They answered from Delium. Delium was on 
the coast of Attica, near the place where the Persians 
had landed, at the time of their advance on Marathon. 
Datis could not safely or conveniently go back there 
to restore it to its place. He determined, therefore, 
to deposit it at Delos for safe keeping, until it could 
be returned to its proper home. 

Delos was a small but very celebrated island near 
the center of the /Egean Sea, and but a short dis- 
tance from the spot where the Persian fleet was lying 
when Datis made this discovery. It was a sacred is- 
land, devoted to religious rites, and all contention, 
and violence, and, so far as was possible, all suffering 
and death, were excluded from it. The sick were re- 
moved from it; the dead were not buried there; 
armed ships and armed men laid aside their hostility 
to each other when they approached it. Belligerent 
fleets rode at anchor, side by side, in peace, upon the 
smooth waters of its little port, and an enchanting 
picture of peace, tranquillity, and happiness was seen 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 235 

upon its shores. A large natural fountain, or spring, 
thirty feet in diameter, and inclosed partly by natural 
rocks and partly by an artificial wall, issued from the 
ground in the center of the island, and sent forth a 
beautiful and fertilizing rill into a rich and happy val- 
ley, through which it meandered, deviously, for sev- 
eral miles, seeking the sea. There was a large and 
populous city near the port, and the whole island was 
adorned with temples, palaces, colonnades, and other 
splendid architectural structures, which made it the 
admiration of all mankind. All this magnificence and 
beauty have, however, long since passed away. The 
island is now silent, deserted, and desolate, a dreary 
pasture, where cattle browse and feed, with stupid 
indifference, among the ancient ruins. Nothing living 
remains of the ancient scene of grandeur and beauty 
but the fountain. That still continues to pour up its 
clear and pellucid waters with a ceaseless and eternal 
flow. 

It was to this Delos that Datis determined to re- 
store the golden statue. He took it on board his own 
galley, and proceeded with it, himself, to the sacred 
island. He deposited it in the great temple of Apollo, 
charging the priests to convey it, as soon as a conven- 
ient opportunity should occur, to its proper destination 
at Delium. 

The Persian fleet, after this business was disposed 
of, set sail again, and pursued its course toward the 



236 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

coasts of Asia, where at length the expedition landed 
in safety. 

The various divisions of the army were then dis- 
tributed in the different provinces where they respec- 
tively belonged, and Datis commenced his march with 
the Persian portion of the troops, and with his pris- 
oners and plunder, for Susa, feeling, however, very un- 
certain how he should be received on his arrival there. 
Despotic power is always capricious; and the charac- 
ter of Darius, which seems to have been naturally 
generous and kind, and was rendered cruel and tyran- 
nical only through the influence of the position in 
which he had been placed, was continually present- 
ing the most opposite and contradictory phases. The 
generous elements of it, fortunately for Datis, seemed 
to be in the ascendency when the remnant of the 
Persian army arrived at Susa. Darius received the re- 
turning general without anger, and even treated the 
prisoners with humanity. 

Before finally leaving the subject of this celebrated 
invasion, which was brought to an end in so re- 
markable a manner by the great battle of Marathon, 
it may be well to relate the extraordinary circum- 
stances which attended the subsequent history of 
Miltiades, the great commander in that battle on the 
Greek side. Before the conflict, he seems to have 
had no official superiority over the other generals, 
but, by the resolute decision with which he urged 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 237 

the plan of giving the Persians battle, and the 
confidence and courage which he manifested in ex- 
pressing his readiness to take the responsibility of 
the measure, he placed himself virtually at the head 
of the Greek command. The rest of the officers 
acquiesced in his pre-eminence, and, waiving their 
claims to an equal share of the authority, they al- 
lowed him to go forward and direct the operations 
of the day. If the day had been lost, Miltiades, even 
though he had escaped death upon the field, would 
have been totally and irretrievably ruined; but as it 
was won, the result of the transaction was that he 
was raised to the highest pinnacle of glory and re- 
nown. 

And yet in this, as in all similar cases, the ques- 
tion of success or of failure depended upon causes 
wholly beyond the reach of human foresight or con- 
trol. The military commander who acts in such con- 
tingencies is compelled to stake every thing dear to 
him on results which are often as purely hazardous 
as the casting of a die. 

The influence of Miltiades in Athens after the Per- 
sian troops were withdrawn was paramount and su- 
preme. Finding himself in possession of this ascend- 
ency, he began to form plans for other military under- 
takings. It proved, in the end, that it would have 
been far better for him to have been satisfied with 
the fame which he had already acquired. 



238 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

Some of the islands in the v^Egean Sea he considered 
as having taken part with the Persians in the invasion, 
to such an extent, at least as to furnish him with a 
pretext for making war upon them. The one which 
he had specially in view, in the first instance, was 
Paros. Paros is a large and important inland situated 
near the center of the southern portion of the JEgean 
Sea. It is of an oval form, and is about twelve miles 
long. The surface of the land is beautifully diversified 
and very picturesque, while, at the same time, the 
soil is very fertile. In the days of Miltiades, it was 
very wealthy and populous, and there was a 
large city, called also Paros, on the western coast 
of the island, near the sea. There is a modern 
town built upon the site of the former city, which 
presents a very extraordinary appearance, as the 
dwellings are formed, in a great measure, of materials 
obtained from the ancient ruins. Marble columns, 
sculptured capitals, and fragments of what were once 
magnificent entablatures, have been used to construct 
plain walls, or laid in obscure and neglected pave- 
ments,— all, however, still retaining, notwithstanding 
their present degradation, unequivocal marks of the 
nobleness of their origin. The quarries where the 
ancient Parian marble was obtained were situated on 
this island, not very far from the town. They remain 
to the present day in the same state in which the 
ancient workmen left them. 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 239 

In the time of Miltiades the island and the city of 
Paros were both very wealthy and very powerful. 
Miltiades conceived the design of making a descent 
upon the island, and levying an immense contribution 
upon the people, in the form of a fine, for what he 
considered their treason in taking part with the 
enemies of their countrymen. In order to prevent 
the people of Paros from preparing for defense, 
Miltiades intended to keep the object of his expedition 
secret for a time. He therefore simply proposed to 
the Athenians that they should equip a fleet and put 
it under his command. He had an enterprise in view, 
he said, the nature of which he could not particularly 
explain, but he was very confident of its success, and, 
if successful, he should return, in a short time, laden 
with spoils which would enrich the city, and amply 
reimburse the people for the expenses they would 
have incurred. The force which he asked for was a 
■fleet of seventy vessels. 

So great was the popularity and influence which 
Miltiades had acquired by his victory at Marathon, that 
this somewhat extraordinary proposition was readily 
complied with. The fleet was equipped, and crews 
were provided, and the whole armament was placed 
under Miltiades's command. The men themselves who 
were embarked on board of the galleys did not know 
whither they were going. Miltiades promised them 
victory, and an abundance of gold as their reward; 



2 4 o DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

for the rest, they must trust, he said, to him, as he 
could not explain the actual destination of the enterprise 
without endangering its success. The men were 
all satisfied with these conditions, and the fleet set 
sail. 

When it arrived on the coast of Paros, the Pa- 
rians were, of course, taken by surprise, but they 
made immediate preparations for a very vigorous re- 
sistance. Miltiades commenced a siege, and sent a 
herald to the city, demanding of them, as the price 
of their ransom, an immense sum of money, saying, 
at the same time, that, unless they delivered up that 
sum, or, at least, gave security for the payment of it, 
he would not leave the place until the city was cap- 
tured, and, when captured, it should be wholly de- 
stroyed. The Parians rejected the demand, and en- 
gaged energetically in the work of completing and 
strengthening their defenses. They organized com- 
panies of workmen to labor during the night, when 
their operations would not be observed, in building 
new walls, and re-enforcing every weak or unguarded 
point in the line of the fortifications. It soon ap- 
peared that the Parians were making far more rapid 
progress in securing their position than Miltiades was 
in his assaults upon it. Miltiades found that an at- 
tack upon a fortified island in the /Egean Sea was a 
different thing from encountering the undisciplined 
hordes of Persians on the open plains of Marathon. 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 241 

There it was a contest between concentrated courage 
and discipline on the one hand, and a vast expansion 
of pomp and parade on the other; whereas now he 
found that the courage and discipline on his part 
were met by an equally indomitable resolution on 
the part of his opponents, guided, too, by an equally 
well-trained experience and skill. In a word, it was 
Greek against Greek at Paros, and Miltiades began at 
length to perceive that his prospect of success was 
growing very doubtful and dim. 

This state of things, of course, filled the mind of 
Miltiades with great anxiety and distress; for, after 
the promises which he had made to the Athenians, 
and the blind confidence which he had asked of 
them in proposing that they should commit the fleet 
so unconditionally to his command, he could not re- 
turn discomfited to Athens without involving himself 
in the most absolute disgrace. While he was in this 
perplexity, it happened that some of his soldiers took 
captive a Parian female, one day, among other pris- 
oners. She proved to be a priestess, from one of the 
Parian temples. Her name was Timo. The thought 
occurred to Miltiades that, since all human means at 
his command had proved inadequate to accomplish 
his end, he might, perhaps, through this captive 
priestess, obtain some superhuman aid. As she had 
been in the service of a Parian temple, she would 
naturally have an influence with the divinities of the 

M. of H.— 17—16 



/ 



242 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

place, or, at least she would be acquainted with the 
proper means of propitiating their favor. 

Miltiades, accordingly, held a private interview 
with Timo, and asked her what he should do to pro- 
pitiate the divinities of Paros so far as to enable him 
to gain possession of the city. She replied that she 
could easily point out the way, if he would but fol- 
low her instructions. Miltiades, overjoyed, promised 
readily that he would do so. She then gave him her 
instructions secretly. What they were is not known, 
except so far as they were revealed by the occur- 
rences that followed. 

There was a temple consecrated to the goddess 
Ceres near to the city, and so connected with it, it 
seems, as to be in some measure included within the 
defenses. The approach to this temple was guarded 
by a palisade. There were, however, gates which 
afforded access, except when they were fastened from 
within. Miltiades, in obedience to Timo's instruc- 
tions, went privately, in the night, perhaps, and with 
very few attendants, to this temple. He attempted 
to enter by the gates, which he had expected, it 
seems, to find open. They were, however, fastened 
against him. He then undertook to scale the palisade. 
He succeeded in doing this, not, however, without 
difficulty, and then advanced toward the temple, in 
obedience to the instructions which he had received 
from Timo. The account states that the act, what- 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 243 

ever it was, that Timo had directed him to perform, 
instead of being, as he supposed, a means of pro- 
pitiating the favor of the divinity, was sacrilegious 
and impious; and Miltiades, as he approached the 
temple, was struck suddenly with a mysterious and 
dreadful horror of mind, which wholly overwhelmed 
him. Rendered almost insane by this supernatural 
remorse and terror, he turned to fly. He reached the 
palisade, and, in endeavoring to climb over it, his 
precipitation and haste caused him to fall. His at- 
tendants ran to take him up. He was helpless and 
in great pain. They found he had dislocated a joint 
in one of his limbs. He received, of course, every 
possible attention; but, instead of recovering from the 
injury, he found that the consequences of it became 
more and more serious every day. In a word, the 
great conqueror of the Persians was now wholly over- 
thrown, and lay moaning on his couch as helpless as 
a child. 

He soon determined to abandon the siege of Paros 
and return to Athens. He had been about a month 
upon the island, and had laid waste the rural dis- 
tricts, but, as the city had made good its defense 
against him, he returned without any of the rich 
spoil which he had promised. The disappointment 
which the people of Athens experienced on his ar- 
rival, turned soon into a feeling of hostility against 
the author of the calamity. Miltiades found that the 



244 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

fame and honor which he had gained at Marathon 
were gone. They had been lost almost as suddenly 
as they had been acquired. The rivals and enemies 
who had been silenced by his former success were 
now brought out and made clamorous against him 
by his present failure. They attributed the failure to 
his own mismanagement of the expedition, and one 
orator, at length, advanced articles of impeachment 
against him, on a charge of having been bribed by 
the Persians to make his siege of Paros only a feint. 
Miltiades could not defend himself from these crim- 
inations, for he was lying, at the time, in utter help- 
lessness, upon his couch of pain. The dislocation of 
the limb had ended in an open wound which at 
length, having resisted all the attempts of the phy- 
sicians to stop its progress, had begun to mortify, 
and the life of the sufferer was fast ebbing away. 
His son Cimon did all in his power to save his 
father from both the dangers that threatened him. 
He defended his character in the public tribunals, and 
he watched over his person in the cell in the prison. 
These filial efforts were, however, in both cases un- 
availing. Miltiades was condemned by the tribunal, 
and he died of his wound. 

The penalty exacted of him by the sentence 
was a very heavy fine. The sum demanded was 
the amount which the expedition to Paros had 
cost the city, and which, as it had been lost 



B.C. 490] DEATH OF DARIUS 245 

through the agency of Miltiades, it was adjudged 
that he should refund. This sentence, as weli 
as the treatment in general which Miltiades re- 
ceived from his countrymen, has been since con- 
sidered by mankind as very unjust and cruel. It was, 
however, only following out, somewhat rigidly, it is 
true, the essential terms and conditions of a military 
career. It results from principles inherent in the very 
nature of war, that we are never to look for the as- 
cendency of justice and humanity in any thing per- 
taining to it. It is always power, and not right, 
that determines possession; it is success, not merit, 
that gains honors and rewards; and they who assent 
to the genius and spirit of military rule thus far, 
must not complain if they find that, on the same 
principle, it is failure and not crime which brings 
condemnation and destruction. 

When Miltiades was dead, Cimon found that he 
could not receive his father's body for honorable in- 
terment unless he paid the fine. He had no means, 
himself, of doing this. He succeeded, however, at 
length, in raising the amount, by soliciting contribu- 
tions from the family friends of his father. He paid 
the fine into the city treasury, and then the body of 
the hero was deposited in its long home. 

The Parians were at first greatly incensed against 
the priestess Timo, as it seemed to them that she had 
intended to betray the city to Miltiades. They wished 



* 



246 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 490 

to put her to death, but they did not dare to do it. 
k might be considered an impious sacrilege to punish 
a priestess. They accordingly sent to the oracle at 
Delphi to state the circumstances of the case, and to 
inquire if they might lawfully put the priestess to 
death. She had been guilty, they said, of pointing 
out to an enemy the mode by which he might gain 
possession of their city; and, what was worse, she 
had, in doing so, attempted to admit him to those 
solemn scenes and mysteries in the temple which it 
was not lawful for any man to behold. The oracle 
replied that the priestess must not be punished, for 
she had done no wrong. It had been decreed by the 
gods that Miltiades should be destroyed, and Timo 
had been employed by them as the involuntary instru- 
ment of conducting him to his fate. The people of 
Paros acquiesced in this decision, and Timo was set 
free. 

But to return to Darius. His desire to subdue the 
Greeks and to add their country to his dominions, 
and his determination to accomplish his purpose, 
were increased and strengthened, not diminished, by 
the repulse which his army had met with at the first 
invasion. He was greatly incensed against the Athe- 
nians, as if he considered their courage and energy 
in defending their country an audacious outrage 
against himself, and a crime. He resolved to organ- 



B.C. 485] DEATH OF DARIUS 247 

ize a new expedition, still greater and more powerful 
than the other. Of this armament he determined to 
take the command himself in person, and to make 
the preparations for it on a scale of such magnitude 
as that the expedition should be worthy to be led by 
the great sovereign of half the world. He accordingly 
transmitted orders to all the peoples, nations, lan- 
guages, and realms, in all his dominions, to raise 
their respective quotas of troops, horses, ships, and 
munitions of war, and prepare to assemble at such 
place of rendezvous as he should designate when all 
should be ready. 

Some years elapsed before these arrangements 
were matured, and when at last the time seemed to 
have arrived for carrying his plans into effect, he 
deemed it necessary, before he commenced his march, 
to settle the succession of his kingdom; for he had 
several sons, who might each claim the throne, and 
involve the empire in disastrous civil wars in attempt- 
ing to enforce their claims-, in case he should never 
return. The historians say that there was a law of 
Persia forbidding the sovereign to leave the realm 
without previously fixing upon a successor. It is 
difficult to see, however, by what power or authority 
such a law could have been enacted, or to believe 
that monarchs like Darius would recognize an abstract 
obligation to law of any kind, in respect to their own 
political action. There is a species of law regulating 



248 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 485 

the ordinary dealings between man and man, that 
springs up in all communities, whether savage or 
civilized, from custom, and from the action of judi- 
cial tribunals, which the most despotic and absolute 
sovereigns feel themselves bound, so far as relates to 
the private affairs of their subjects, to respect and 
uphold; but, in regard to their own personal and 
governmental acts and measures, they very seldom 
know any other authority than the impulses of their 
own sovereign will. 

Darius had several sons, among whom there were 
two who claimed the right to succeed their father on 
the throne. One was the oldest son of a wife whom 
Darius had married before he became king. His 
name was Artobazanes. The other was the son ot 
Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, whom Darius had 
married after his accession to the throne. His name 
was Xerxes. Artobazanes claimed that he was en- 
titled to be his father's heir, since he was his oldest 
son. Xerxes, on the other hand, maintained that, at 
the period of the birth of Artobazanes, Darius was 
not a king. He was then in a private station, and 
sons could properly inherit only what their fathers 
possessed at the time when they were born. He 
himself, on the other hand, was the oldest son which 
his father had had, being a king, and he was, conse- 
quently, the true inheritor of the kingdom. Besides, 
being the son of Atossa, he was the grandson of Cy- 



B.C. 485] DEATH OF DARIUS 249 

rus, and the hereditary rights, therefore, of that great 
founder of the empire had descended to him. 

Darius decided the question in favor of Xerxes, 
and then made arrangements for commencing his 
march, with a mind full of elation and pride which 
were awakened by the grandeur of his position and 
the magnificence of his schemes. These schemes, 
however, he did not live to execute. He suddenly fell 
sick and died, just as he was ready to set out upon 
his expedition, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his 
stead. 

Xerxes immediately took command of the vast 
preparations which his father had made, and went on 
with the prosecution of the enterprise. The expedi- 
tion which followed deserves, probably, in respect to 
the numbers engaged in it, the distance which it 
traversed, the immenseness of the expenses involved, 
and the magnitude of its results, to be considered 
the greatest military undertaking which human am- 
bition and power have ever attempted to effect. The 
narrative, however, both of its splendid adventures 
and of its ultimate fate, belongs to the history of 
Xerxes. 

The greatness of Darius was the greatness of po- 
sition and not of character. He was the absolute 
sovereign of nearly half the world, and, as such, 
was held up very conspicuously to the attention of 



250 DARIUS THE GREAT [B.C. 485 

mankind, who gaze with a strong feeling of admi- 
ration and awe upon these vast elevations of power, 
as they do upon the summits of mountains, simply 
because they are high. Darius performed no great 
exploit, and he accomplished no great object while 
he lived; and he did not even leave behind him any 
strong impressions of personal character. There is in 
his history, and in the position which he occupies in 
the minds of men, greatness without dignity, success 
without merit, vast and long-continued power with- 
out effects accomplished or objects gained, and uni- 
versal and perpetual renown without honor or ap- 
plause. The world admire Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander, 
Alfred, and Napoleon for the deeds which they per- 
formed. They admire Darius only on account of the 
elevation on which he stood. In the same lofty po- 
sition, they would have admired, probably, just as 
much, the very horse whose neighing placed him 
there. 

THE END. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




006 025 136 8 




